Jaishankar, who till recently was India's Ambassador to China, is slated to move to Washington on Tuesday. He will have to wait for about over about two weeks to present his credential to President Obama who is holidaying with his family in Hawaii and is scheduled to return only on January 5.

India hopes that its new envoy would be able to turn around the deteriorating relations.

Jaishankar, who is proficient in Russian and also knows Japanese and Hungarian, succeeds Nirupama Rao.

India has demanded an apology and withdrawal of charges against the 39-year-old Deputy Consul General at the Indian consulate in New York, Devyani Khobragade who was arrested and strip-searched on alleged visa fraud and underpayment to her maid.

New Delhi has retaliated by withdrawing a slew of privileges being provided to American diplomats in India for decades. But, the US has refused to drop charges and tender an apology.

Meanwhile, Devyani Khobragade, who had been transferred to India’s Permanent Mission at UN, has now been given accreditation by the world body. She has also been exempted from personal appearance in the case in the US.
But she will still have to face the due process, since she was charged when she was still a Deputy Consul.

'Receiving diplomatic immunity does not nullify any previously existing criminal charges. Those remain on the books. Nor does obtaining diplomatic immunity protect the diplomat from prosecution indefinitely. It relates to the status of a diplomat's current status for the length of the time of that status,' State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said earlier.