Nirupama Menon Rao (born December 6, 1950) is an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, and the current Foreign Secretary of India (Indian Foreign Secretary), serving the External Affairs Ministry (Ministry of External Affairs (India)).

In July 2009, she became the second woman to hold the post of Indian Foreign Secretary, the head of Indian Foreign Service. In her career she has served in several capacities including, Minister of Press Affairs in Washington, Deputy Chief of Mission in Moscow, stints in the Ministry of External Affairs as Joint Secretary (East Asia), (External Publicity) making her the first woman spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry, Chief of Personnel, Ambassador to Peru and China, and High Commissioner (High Commissioner (Commonwealth)) to Sri Lanka .