Rishi Ram is a Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

an civil servant and former diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

 of Indian

Indians in Fiji

Indo-Fijians are Fijians whose ancestors came from India and various parts of South Asia, South-East Asia and Asia itself. They number 313,798 out of a total of 827,900 people living in Fiji...

 descent. On 15 January 2007, he became Chairman of the Public Service Commission. He was the first ethnic Indian to head the PSC.

Ram served as Deputy Secretary of the PSC from June 1990 to April 1993. He was Secretary for Women and Multi-Ethnic Affairs from 1993 to 1994, and for Urban Housing and Development from 1994 to 2001, when he served briefly as Ambassador

Ambassador

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, until 2002. He served again as Secretary for Women from 2002 to 2004.

Early life

Ram was born in Ba

Ba District, Fiji

Ba is a district situation on the North Western part of the island of Viti Levu in Fiji. The name Ba is also used for a province, a tikina , a town and a river. Ba district comprises the areas surrounding Ba Town and includes the Fijian administrative tikinas of Ba and Magodro. Ba district is in...

 in 1952 and attended attended St Teresa's Primary School and Khalsa Secondary School. In 1966 he moved to Suva

Suva

Suva features a tropical rainforest climate under the Koppen climate classification. The city sees a copious amount of precipitation during the course of the year. Suva averages 3,000 mm of precipitation annually with its driest month, July averaging 125 mm of rain per year. In fact,...

 and started his public service career as a clerical officer with the Ministry of Primary Industries. He started started studying for his Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree from the University of the South Pacific

University of the South Pacific

The University of the South Pacific is a public university with a number of locations spread throughout a dozen countries in Oceania. It is an international centre for teaching and research on Pacific culture and environment. USP's academic programmes are recognised worldwide, attracting students...

 in 1985, as a part-time student and graduated in 1995, majoring in management and sociology. He is married to Sarla and has two daughters and a son.