- Source: Sujan R. Chinoy
Sujan R. Chinoy (born 1958) is a former Indian diplomat and the Director General of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses (IDSA), India's foremost think tank in New Delhi, in the field of defense, security, and international relations. He retired from the Indian Foreign Service on 30 September 2018 after a professional diplomatic career spanning more than 37 years with experience in China, East Asia, the Asia-Pacific region, the Gulf, the OIC, the United Nations, National Security, and the US and Latin American region. He held the highest rank of Grade I Ambassador (equivalent to Vice Minister/Secretary to the Government of India) and was a member of the prestigious Padma Award selection committee 2023.[1]
Career
= Ambassador to Japan
=He was the Indian Ambassador to Japan from 2015-2018. He served as the Indian Ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. During his tenure, he facilitated visits by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan in 2016 and 2018, as well as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visits to India in 2015 and 2017. He played a key role in advancing the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership. Significant developments occurred under his leadership, including the completion of the Shinkansen (Bullet Train/Mumbai Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail) project, the Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, the establishment of Japanese vocational training centers in India (Japan India Institutes of Manufacturing, or "JIMs"), the integration of young Indian professionals into Japanese companies through Japan's Technical Intern Training Programme (TITP), and collaborations in various sectors such as healthcare, digital technologies, start-ups, agriculture, food processing, disaster risk reduction, space sciences, earth sciences, oceanography, and defense cooperation.
During his term in Japan, India emerged as Japan's largest ODA partner, and Japan became one of the top three investors in the Indian economy with a presence in manufacturing, financial markets, acquisitions and mergers, logistics, and start-ups. Japan participated on key infrastructure projects in India, besides being linked to major flagship initiatives such as Smart City, Swachh Bharat (Clean India), Digital India, Start Up India, Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission, etc.
= Other appointments
=Chinoy served as Indian Ambassador to Mexico and High Commissioner of India to Belize from 2012 to 2015. He was Additional Secretary in the National Security Council Secretariat in the Prime Minister's Office in New Delhi for several years. He also served for many years as India's Consul General in China (Shanghai) and Australia (Sydney), handling trade and economic portfolios.
Early life
Chinoy was born to Romeshchandra Chinoy, a senior Indian Police Service officer, and Usha Chinoy (née Joshi), a well-known musician, social worker, and educationist who taught at the Rajkumar College, Rajkot. Usha Chinoy's grandfather, Vaidya Shastri Manishankar Govindji (Maṇicaṅkar Kōvintaji), founded the Ayurveda firm Atank Nigrah Pharmacy in Jamnagar in 1881. The Atank Nigrah Pharmacy was an early multi-national company, with branches in Singapore, Penang (Malaysia), Rangoon (Myanmar), Colombo (Sri Lanka), and Karachi (in the then- undivided India), apart from major cities in India. Chinoy's paternal grandfather, Barrister C. N. Chinoy, was a two-term Dewan (Prime Minister) of the state of Rajkot during the 1930s-1940s, after whom the pre-Independence "Infantry Road" in the old Cantonment area of Rajkot was renamed "Barrister Chinoy Road". Chinoy has two sisters, Dr. Parasmani Acharya and Dr. Mala R. Chinoy.
Chinoy is a direct descendant of Seth Nanji Jekaran Shah (later Seth Nanji Chinai of Mangrol), an early Jain trader from Mangrol in coastal Saurashtra in Western India who founded the Gujarati community in Kolkata and was also the first Gujarati trader in Shanghai, and lived there for twelve years in the opening decades of the 19th century. The 200-year-old Jain Derasar (Temple) in the town of Palitana in the Shatrunjay Mountain Range (in Gujarat), well known as ‘Nanji Chinai’s Chaumukhji Derasar’, was built with donations by Sujan Chinoy's ancestor Seth Nanji Jekaran Shah. This Derasar’s main Jain Tirthankar (nayak) is Chandraprabhu, and it has 21 marble statues/idols and one metal statue/idol of each of the various Tirthankars of Jainism.
Education
Chinoy received his education at Rajkumar College, Rajkot (1965–74), where he played in the school's orchestra (sitar) and was a member of the rifle shooting team. He completed his BA (Hons.) in English Literature and Psychology, along with a Diploma in German from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Additionally, he obtained his MBA in Marketing from B.K. School of Business Management, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad. He represented his university/district in athletics, rifleshooting, swimming, and bodybuilding. He also pursues horse-back riding, tent-pegging, and show jumping as a hobby. While at the university, Chinoy was a Senior Under Officer in the Infantry Wing of the National Cadet Corps and completed his "C" Certificate, including a special high-altitude ski course at the Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering in Gulmarg. He participated in the All India Inter-University Rifle Shooting Championship held in Chennai in 1976. He was offered a direct commission in the Indian Army but preferred to pursue postgraduate studies and join the Indian Foreign Service in 1981.
He is fluent in Chinese (Mandarin) and has a degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He also knows French, German, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish and French Creole, as well as Gujarati, Hindi, and Urdu. He was an exchange student at the Otemon Gakuin University in Osaka, Japan, in 1978.
Other achievements
Chinoy organised the largest gathering of yoga enthusiasts outside of India for the event marking International Yoga Day on 21 May 2015 in Mexico City, which witnessed about 6,000 participants on the broad Reforma Avenue. He gave a sitar performance on 2 October 2013, playing Mahatma Gandhiji's favourite bhajans, Raghupati Raghav Rajaram and Vaishnava Jana To, to mark Gandhi Jayanti in Mexico City. He has performed a cameo role in a Gujarati film titled Sorath No Sinh Chelbhai.
At the time of his retirement, he was the senior-most-career Ambassador of the Indian Foreign Service overseas, as well as the country's only Gujarati Ambassador.