Honorary degree recipient - Vikas Swarup

Vikas Swarup is a Government of India diplomat and bestselling author. He is recognized for literary excellence and dedication to diplomacy.

Vikas Swarup is an internationally renowned bestselling author and long-serving civil servant for the Government of India.

In a diplomatic career that spans more than three decades, Swarup has worked for the Indian Foreign Service in various capacities in Turkey, the United States, Ethiopia, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Japan. After serving as the official spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi (2015 – 2017), he was appointed India’s High Commissioner to Canada. In 2019, he became Secretary (West) in India’s External Affairs Ministry.

Swarup penned his first novel, Q&A, in just two months while posted in London. Q&A came out in 2005 and has since been published in 43 languages and won multiple awards. The film version, Slumdog Millionaire, won seven BAFTAs, four Golden Globes and eight Oscars, including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. His subsequent books, Six Suspects and The Accidental Apprentice, have been published in all major languages.

Swarup has written for TIME, Newsweek, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Financial Times, and has participated in literary festivals around the world. In 2009 he received the U.S.-India Business Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award for “Contributing to the Cultural Ties that Bind.”

- Jake Brennan, June 3, 2020

* As a result of the suspension of June, 2020 convocation ceremonies due to pandemic restrictions, Honorary Degree recipients provided video messages. Citations for recipients will be posted following rescheduled ceremonies, which will be announced at a future date. 

Read more about the Spring 2020 Honorary Doctorate Recipients and visit CU CELEBRATE to watch videos celebrating Spring 2020 graduates.