One of the highest-ranking Indians in the United Nations just climbed higher.

At noon on Friday May 31, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed Shashi Tharoor as the Under Secretary General, Communications and Public Information.

The appointment becomes effective June 1.

In a sense, this is merely the formalisation of a responsibility that has been Tharoor's since January 2001, when he was named interim head of the Department of Public Information at the Assistant-Secretary-General level.

At another level, however, the bland announcement masks a little surprise.

Officials of this level and up are in general political appointees nominated by their respective countries, which means that such nominations have political connotations to them.

Annan, however, opted in this case to elevate a career official to the post - a move that is seen as in keeping with the Secretary General's desire to revamp the department.

Recent times have seen the UN come under attack for ineffectiveness and wastefulness, to name two charges. The fact that these charges have gone largely unanswered owes to that body's inability to build bridges with the world at large, and to communicate effectively what it is doing and where.

Annan, more media friendly than his predecessors, has looked to change this, tried to revamp the department and ensure that the UN gets a more friendly, visible, and understandable public face. This latest appointment is in keeping with this aim, sources told rediff.com.

Tharoor, who wears the twin hats of UN official and author, said of the appointment that he considered it 'a great honor', more so since he was handpicked by Annan himself.

"I never expected, when I joined the UN 24 years ago, to rise to this level," Tharoor, who is due to leave for Vienna on an official trip this weekend, told rediff.com. "I hope I can justify the confidence the Secretary General has reposed in me."

Born in London in 1956, Tharoor was educated in India and the United States, completing a Ph D in 1978 at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he also earned two Master's degrees.

He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in International Affairs by the University of Puget Sound, USA.

He joined the UN in May 1978 on the staff of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, serving at the UNHCR headquarters in Geneva and for three-and-a-half years (1981-1984) as head of the UNHCR office in Singapore at the peak of the Vietnamese 'boat people' crisis.

As special assistant to the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations (1989-96), Tharoor assisted two successive heads of the office in managing the body's increasing role in peace keeping operations, notably in Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1996.

Tharoor had also served as executive assistant to the Secretary-General (1997-1998) and later as Director of Communications and Special Projects in the office of the Secretary-General (1998-2001).

In January 1998, he was named as a 'Global Leader of Tomorrow' by the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland).

Tharoor is the author of six books, including The Great Indian Novel (1989) and Riot (2001), and India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997), a study of Indian politics, society and economic development after independence. Tharoor has won awards for journalism and literature, including a Commonwealth Writers' Prize.