In a significant victory for India at the United Nations, Indian diplomat Vidisha Maitra was elected to the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly. In the Group of Asia-Pacific States, Maitra, First Secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, obtained 126 votes. The 193-member General Assembly appoints members of the Advisory Committee. Members are selected on the basis of broad geographical representation, personal qualifications and experience. Maitra was one of two nominated candidates from the Group of Asia-Pacific States. The election was a tightly contested one but Maitra won with 126 UN members supporting her candidature for the only post for the Asia-Pacific group while 64 voted for the opposing candidate who was from Iraq. The Fifth Committee of the General Assembly, which deals with administrative and budgetary issues, recommended Maitra to the Assembly for a three-year term beginning January 1, 2021.
Maitra is a career diplomat with the Indian Foreign Service and currently posted as First Secretary in Permanent Mission of India to UN in New York. She has served in various capacities in New Delhi, Paris, Port Louis and New York over the last 11 years. Maitra is the first secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). She is also a recipient of the Ambassador Bimal Sanyal Memorial Prize. She has previously been involved in strategic policy planning and research, formulation and implementation of development assistance and infrastructure projects, defence acquisition matters, international taxation issues, investment and trade promotion.
It was Indian diplomat Vidisha Maitra who wielded the most powerful weapon of all times to dismantle Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan lousy speech at the UNGA 2019. She grabbed global limelight with her point-by-point decimation of Imran Khan’s UN address-cum-veiled threat of war targeting India. Her scathing yet poignant response to Imran Khan’s speech, backed by facts, data and proof cast the Pak PM in a funny light.
