Senior diplomat Anurag Srivastava on Monday took charge as the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, succeeding Raveesh Kumar

Srivastava, a 1999-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, was serving as India's Ambassador to Ethiopia.

"Honoured and privileged to take over as the Official Spokesperson of @MEAIndia. I look forward to working closely with all to fulfil my responsibilities in this new role," he tweeted.

Before he was appointed as Indian envoy to Ethiopia, Srivastava was helming the Finance Division of the MEA which is tasked to administer it's annual budget of about USD 2 billion.

Srivastava served at the India's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva where he dealt with work related to human rights, refugee issues and trade policy. He also served in the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division of the ministry at its headquarters.

Srivastava has degrees in engineering and business management and had a brief stint in the corporate sector before joining the Indian Foreign Service. He also has a postgraduate diploma in Diplomatic Studies from the Oxford University.