How did India, the host of the G-20 Summit manage to bring the member countries to come to a consensus on the most contentious issue - conflict between Russia and Ukraine-  which the world was predicting would be the spoiler in the Summit?

Amitabh Kant, the Sherpa of the G-20, who was also congratulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, says, “The most complex part of the entire G-20 was to bring consensus on the geopolitical paras (Russia-Ukraine).”

Taking to X for the first time after the conclusion of a successful G-20 Summit in New Delhi, Kant said, “This was done over 200 hours of non-stop negotiations, 300 bilateral meetings, 15 drafts. In this, I was greatly assisted by two brilliant officers.”

The officers whom he had tagged in his post and whose names he mentions as the Indian Foreign Service officers  - Nagaraj Naidu Kakanur, and Eenam Gambhir.

In another post on X he praised Lily Pandeya, deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Nagaraj Naidu Kakanur for the cultural elements of the G-20 Summit:

At the #G20 Cultural Corridor with two creative, talented and brilliant civil servants @NagNaidu08 and @LilyPandeya . They have done a Gr8 job at #G20. Wish them the best! pic.twitter.com/S8DQ3cWyq1

— Amitabh Kant (@amitabhk87) September 10, 2023

Hailing from Hyderabad, Nagaraj Kakanur has served as the Chef de Cabinet to the President of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. His earlier assignment was the Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the UN.

Kakanur, a career diplomat, is a fluent Chinese speaker and has served four stint in China.

Naidu was also the National Coordinator for establishing the treaty-based body International Solar Alliance in India (which has General Assembly Observer status). He also served as a Board member in several Public Sector organizations including India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO), Water and Power Consultancy Services Ltd. (WAPCOS), Invest India, and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT).

A 2005-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Eenam Gambhir is serving as a joint secretary to G20 and the Ministry of External Affairs.

Gambhir, in her position in the G20 Secretariat, deals with handling G20-related issues including the preparations for India's G20 Presidency.

Before this, Gambhir served as a senior adviser on Peace and Security issues in the Office of the President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN HQ in New York.

Gambhir holds two master's degrees – a master of sciences in mathematics from Delhi University and a master's in advanced international security from the University of Geneva.

She became the most recognized face of Indian diplomacy when she replied to Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan at the UN Security Council in October 2019.