Vikas Swarup, MEA spokesperson and Q & A author, appointed India's High Commissioner to Canada

Vikas Swarup, an Indian Foreign Service officer, is best known as the author of the novel Q & A, adapted in film as Slumdog Millionaire.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup was on Thursday appointed as the High Commissioner of India to Canada.

MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup appointed as High Commissioner of lndia to Canada

— ANI (@ANI_news) February 16, 2017

Swarup, who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1986, has served in Turkey, the United States, Ethiopia, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Japan in various Indian diplomatic missions.

In April 2015, he was appointed as the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs replacing Syed Akbaruddin.

Swarup is best known as the author of the novel Q & A, which was adapted in film as Slumdog Millionaire, the winner of Best Film for the year 2009 at the Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards and BAFTA Awards. The book has also been translated to 43 languages.

Swarup, who was born in Allahabad to a family of lawyers, was also conferred the degree of Doctor of Literature and Philosophy by the University of South Africa at a graduation ceremony in Pretoria on September 21, 2010.