The Prime Minister's office,PMO,has brought in some more diplomats from the Indian Foreign Service in an administrative shake-up.Vikram Misri has taken over from Jaideep Sarkar as private secretary to Dr.Manmohan Singh.Misri was brought in from Munich, where he was India's consul-general to become joint secretary in PMO.

Javed Ashraf has taken Misri's place as joint secretary in the PMO, after serving for almost two years as joint secretary Americas.His move to the PMO is considered significant, because he would be the linchpin of a lot of policy work cutting across sectors.Sarkar is to be the new ambassador to Israel.

In the MEA, Vikram Doraiswamy has been given charge of the Americas division, which is generally believed to be one of the key assignments. Doraiswamy, who is proficient in Mandarin, was in charge of SAARC countries after returning from South Africa.