Rahul Shrivastava, a native of Chhattisgarh, has been appointed the Ambassador of India to Venezuela, a South American country and the third largest supplier of oil to India. At 40 years, Shrivastava is at present the youngest appointed Ambassador of India. He was born in Khairagarh and started his schooling in St Wesleyan Convent School in Rajnandgaon.
Thereafter, he did his education in Odisha, where his father, Braj Kishore Shrivastava worked as a Mechanical Engineer. Shrivastava is the great grandson of late Shri Padumlal Punnalal Bakshi. His parents, both of whom were also born in Khairagarh, are now settled in Rajnandgaon after retirement from service.
Rahul Shrivastava was born on January 30, 1975. He started schooling in St Weslyan School, Rajnandgaon in 1979. Thereafter, he continued his schooling in Odisha. In 1996, he graduated in Chemistry from Ravenshaw College, Cuttack, Odisha. In 1999, he got his Masters degree in Computer Applications from Regional Engineering College (now National Institute of Technology), Rourkela, Odisha.
Shrivastava joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in September 1999. From September 1999 to December 1999, he underwent training at the lal Bahadur Shastri Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, Uttarakhand and, thereafter, from January to December 2000 at the Foreign Service Institute, New Delhi. He is married to Elena Shrivastava and they have two children — one son and one daughter.
