Katyayani Shankar Bajpai

Katyayani Shankar Bajpai (30 March 1928 – 30 August 2020) was an Indian diplomat. He served as the Indian envoy to Pakistan (1976–1980), China (1980–1982) and to the United States (1984–1986). These three postings are considered to be the most important for an Indian diplomat.

Early life and education He was born on 30 March 1928 in Jaipur. His father Girija Shankar Bajpai was also a diplomat. He completed his bachelor's degree in modern history at Oxford University in 1949. and had stints in Turkey and Pakistan. He accompanied Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri for the Tashkent summit.

He served as Ambassador to Pakistan (1976–1980), China (1980–1982) and to the United States (1984–1986). He was the Indian ambassador to the United States during Rajiv Gandhi's state visit in 1985.

After retiring from the IFS in 1986, he taught as a visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Berkeley. He later became the first professor of non-Western studies at Brandeis University. In 1994, he founded Delhi Policy Group, an independent think tank. From 1995 to 2000, he worked as a Senior International Adviser at Merrill Lynch in New York. At the time of his death, he'd been working on a biography of his father.