Harsh Vardhan Shringla to Set Up UPSC Coaching Centres in Darjeeling

Darjeeling, May 12, 2024 - Harsh Vardhan Shringla, a former foreign secretary who has the rare honour of a road named after him in another country, has announced his decision to help groom young minds from the region to crack the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examinations.

Shringla made this announcement while delivering a lecture at Southfield College in Darjeeling on Saturday. He spoke of the “interconnected nature of global affairs” and the way India’s image had transformed over the years. He also encouraged students to train on skills and spoke on techniques to crack the UPSC.

The Darjeeling Welfare Society, a nonprofit headed by Shringla, will set up UPSC coaching centres in Darjeeling. “The Darjeeling Welfare Society and Southfield College will soon be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for establishing a coaching centre,” said Shringla, who until recently was the chief coordinator of India’s G20 Presidency.

Shringla has previously served as India’s foreign secretary and the country’s ambassador to the United States, high commissioner to Bangladesh, and ambassador to Thailand. His vast experience has made the BJP keen to use his expertise in this region.

Although Shringla has remained mum on his political aspirations, his supporters are rooting for his entry to Parliament through the Rajya Sabha route. His name was strongly proposed by a lobby within the BJP as the party’s candidate from Darjeeling, but the decision to drop him as the BJP nominee was taken at the very last moment.

Shringla, 62, has a road at Bakerganj in Barishal district of Kalaskathi Union in Bangladesh named after him as a symbol of Bangladesh-India friendship. The 2.7km “Shree Harsh Vardhan Shringla Road” was inaugurated on August 7, 2023, by local MP Nasreen Jahan Ratna Amin.

Shringla visited Kalaskathi when he was the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh from 2016 to 2019. The area has important memories of the Bangladesh liberation war, with a Satindra Smriti Gandhi Ashram founded in 1946 by the then Gandhian leader Satindranath Sen and his associates.