Mohammad Hamid Ansari was the Vice President of India since August 2007. He is the only person to get elected to this high office for two consecutive terms since Dr S. Radhakrishnan. Besides being the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Shri Ansari is the President of the Indian Council of World Affairs and the Indian Institute of Public Administration, and Chancellor of the universities of Delhi, Panjab, and Pondicherry. In a diplomatic career of almost four decades, Shri Ansari served as India's Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates; High Commissioner to Australia and Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in New York. He was a Visiting Professor at the Centre for West Asian and African Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and at the Academy For Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia. He was also Vice Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University and the Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities. He is the author of 'Travelling Through Conflict: Essays on the Politics of West Asia' (2008) and has edited, 'Iran Today: Twenty-Five Years After The Islamic Revolution' (2005).
