He graduated with a B.E. Degree in Electrical Engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras, in 1962. He has two daughters. He is not related to Gopalaswami Aiyangar who drafted Article 370 on Kashmir upon Nehru's suggestion. See the note about disambiguation above for further information.
Career
He started his career as a commissioned officer in the Indian Army, subsequently he joined the Indian Foreign Service on 29 July 1968, and his first diplomatic assignment was as Third Secretary in the Embassy of India in Moscow from August 1970. For years he was known in the corridors of South Block as "Chotta GP" to distinguish him from his namesake G Parthasarathy one of India's tallest diplomats, who served as India's High Commissioner to Pakistan between 1963 and 1965. He then served in Dar es Salaam and Washington, and was Consul General in Karachi from 1982-1985. Later he was India's High Commissioner to Cyprus from 1990 to 92 Ambassador to Myanmar 1992 to 1995, High Commissioner to Australia from 1995 to 1998, and High Commissioner to Pakistan from 1998 to 2000. He was also Spokesman, Ministry of External Affairs and Information Adviser, and Spokesman in the Prime Minister's Office with Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi. He is presently Visiting Professor in the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and a member of the Executive Committee of the Centre for Air Power Studies in New Delhi. His main areas of interest are developments in India's neighbourhood and issues of economic integration, energy and national security and terrorism. He currently writes an influential column in The Pioneer, Business Line and Rediff.com, mostly on foreign affairs. He is popularly regarded as a "hawk" when it comes to matters of India's defence and policy towards Pakistan and terrorism. He co-authored a book with ex-Pakistan Foreign Secretary, Dr. Humayun Khan. The book, Diplomatic Divide, debates the issues that divide India and Pakistan. In July 2018, he was appointed as the Chancellor of Central University of Jammu.
