India beat China at the elections to the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit (JIU), an independent external oversight body of the UN system mandated to conduct evaluations, inspections and investigations system-wide.
India got 106 votes while China got 77 votes out of the 183 cast in the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, thus winning the lone Asia-Pacific region seat. A Gopinathan is India's nominee to the JIU. He will be serving the Unit for five years starting from January 1, 2012.
Who is A Gopinathan?
He is India's permanent representative to the UN offices in Geneva. He was India's deputy permanent representative in New York for over 3 years from 2002 to 2005. He also served as UN joint secretary from 1997 to 2001 at the ministry of external affairs. He defeated Zhang Yan, China's Ambassador in New Delhi, to represent India in JIU.
