RIYADH, 10 July — The counselor of political and economic affairs at the Indian Embassy, Riyadh, Niraj Srivastava, has been nominated by the Ministry of External Affairs for a fellowship at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD), Georgetown University, Washington. The one-year fellowship involves research and teaching a course on South Asia to undergraduate students at Georgetown. He will be joining the ISD next month. Srivastava, who holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA), learned Arabic in Damascus (Syria) during 1984-86. He also studied at Oxford University, UK, in 1988-89, where he did post-graduation in diplomatic studies. He joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1983. As a career diplomat, he has seen postings in Damascus, Washington, Tripoli and Riyadh. Srivastava who will be leaving for New Delhi tomorrow, said his four-year stay in the Kingdom was an important and challenging assignment “which I found fruitful, both professionally and personally.” (AN)