Lakshmi Puri (born 1952) is a former Indian diplomat and United Nations official and an author. She served for 28 years in the Indian Foreign Service, including as Ambassador to Hungary, and then for fifteen years at the United Nations, where she was Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women from its founding in 2011 until 2018. Her first novel, Swallowing the Sun, was published in 2024.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri |
| Born | 1952, India |
| Occupation | Former diplomat and UN official, author |
| Service | Indian Foreign Service (1974–2002) |
| UN posts | Director, UNCTAD; Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director, UN Women (2011–2018) |
| Education | University of Delhi (history); postgraduate studies at Panjab University |
| Spouse | Hardeep Singh Puri |
| Children | 2 daughters |
Early Life
Lakshmi Murdeshwar was born into a family from Maharashtra. She studied history at the University of Delhi and joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1974, in the same batch as her future husband, Hardeep Singh Puri.
Diplomatic Career
Her postings included Japan and Sri Lanka, and she worked for many years on trade and economic diplomacy, representing India at negotiations in Geneva. She was Ambassador to Hungary, accredited also to Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 1999 to 2002.
United Nations
She joined the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva in 2002 as director of its largest division, dealing with international trade in goods, services and commodities, and was for a time its acting deputy head. In 2011 she moved to New York as one of the founding leaders of UN Women, the new agency for gender equality, serving as its deputy and, in 2013, as its acting head. She led its work on agreements such as the gender equality goal in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Writer
Swallowing the Sun (2024) is a historical novel set in Maharashtra during the freedom struggle, following a strong-willed young woman called Malati. It draws on the lives of the author’s own parents and takes its title from a verse by the Marathi saint-poet Muktabai.
Personal Life
She is married to Hardeep Singh Puri, the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and they have two daughters. In 2024 the Delhi High Court ruled in her favour in a defamation case she had brought against a political activist over social media posts about a property abroad.
Awards and Honours
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Lakshmi Puri born?
Lakshmi Puri was born in 1952, India.
What is Lakshmi Puri’s occupation?
Occupation: Former diplomat and UN official, author.
Featured image: Lakshmi Puri at the Jaipur Literature Festival, 2025. Photo by Sriya Sarkar, licensed under CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
