V. M. M. Nair

Nair died on 6 October 2021 at the age of 101 in his flat in Mayur Vihar Phase I, two days before his 102nd birthday.

After Indian independence, Nair transferred to the newly organised Indian Foreign Service and was promoted to senior under-secretary by 1949. He was then posted to the Cairo embassy as first secretary, where he was appointed acting charge d'affaires on 19 April 1951.

As a deputy secretary, Nair and his colleagues in the Department of External Affairs were involved in a British initiative to supply arms to Tibet. With Indian independence imminent, the British government determined to maintain a certain level of influence in the largely autonomous state and gain some leverage over the Chinese government, even to the extent of arming "peace-loving monks". In February 1946, British political agents encouraged Tibet to purchase 382,162 rupees (£28,662. 3s. 0d.; equivalent to £1,264,844 in 2021). worth of weapons. The suggested purchases, intended to equip a brigade-level force, included 2- and 3-inch mortars, Bren and Sten guns, rifles and Verey pistols. Though this shipment was delivered to Lhasa in May 1947, some difficulties remained over approvals for ammunition. On 5 August 1947, Nair observed any disturbances in Tibet would have geopolitical consequences in areas bordering both India and Pakistan. He suggested both governments send Tibet ammunition from their joint supply ahead of partition. This was done, and the ammunition arrived in Tibet in January 1948.

He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. In July 1942, he was selected for the second-to-last batch of the Indian Civil Service, both the smallest-ever batch of the ICS and the last for which direct nominations were made by the India Office in London. He was subsequently posted to Bihar Province as an assistant collector and magistrate. In 1946, he transferred to the Foreign and Political Department (the Indian Political Service).

Nair was born into a distinguished family of civil servants and lawyers; his father Chettur Karunakaran Nair was an Indian Imperial Police officer who served as a district superintendent in the Madras Presidency. His uncle Sir C. Madhavan Nair was a judge of the Madras High Court who served as Advocate-General of Madras from 1923 to 1924, while his great-uncle Sir C. Sankaran Nair was President of the Indian National Congress in 1897 and Advocate-General of Madras from 1906 to 1908. He was married to Krishnakumari Nair and has two children, a son and a daughter. After his retirement, he resided in New Delhi.

Vallilath Madhathil Madhavan Nair (8 October 1919 – 6 October 2021) was an Indian civil servant and diplomat. He was the last living officer from either the Indian Civil Service or the Indian Political Service.