The authorities of India earlier this month accepted a proposal to overview and restructure the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), which is predicted to create greater than 200 extra posts inside the subsequent 5 years.

The transfer comes after a parliamentary committee on exterior affairs concluded that the nation’s diplomatic service is “most short-staffed” in comparison with different nations which have smaller economies than India.

The committee additionally really useful that the overview ought to embody comparisons between the IFS and the diplomatic missions of China, in addition to the overseas companies of main growing nations.

“The country’s interests and influence extend into more continents and it needs more diplomatic representation,” a senior officer informed DW, requesting anonymity. “While India has increased the number of missions on those continents, they are inadequate.” 

Boosting the variety of officers

“It is well known that the size of the IFS is not commensurate with the needs of India, and the ambitions of its global reach,” former Indian diplomat Deepa Wadhwa informed DW.

This is even though “India has always been acknowledged as a very effective player in international affairs, including in multilateral fora like the UN,” she stated.

She added that the enlargement was wanted as India opens “more diplomatic missions around the world and beefs up the headquarters to be able to adequately handle the many new dimensions of diplomacy which are emerging and where it has interests at stake.”

D B Venkatesh Varma, a former diplomat who served as India’s ambassador to Russia, identified that the restructuring plan is a welcome however a protracted overdue resolution by the federal government.

“India’s expanding global footprint requires increased diplomatic foot soldiers — not just in underrepresented regions like Central Asia, Africa and Latin America, but also for new initiatives of India on the global level to boost multipolarity both at the UN and economic diplomacy,” Varma informed DW.

“By 2027 we will be the third largest economy — we cannot have a foreign service of the same size when we are the 10th largest. A complex world also needs more specialization — the IFS was meant to be a specialized service.”

“Lastly, the Indian diaspora is the largest diaspora in the world — with varied needs and interests. To do all this and more, the IFS must grow, spread out, specialize, but integrate and project a new India abroad in the decades to come,” Varma added.

Recruitment strategies

IFS officers are historically recruited by way of annual exams for aspiring state officers. Those who qualify take a second spherical of exams, which is then adopted by an interview. At the tip of the method, round 1,000 persons are recruited into the IFS, the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Police Service (IPS), the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), and different businesses.

Amitabh Mattoo, a professor in worldwide relation at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, believes that the Indian authorities might maybe consider extra artistic methods of boosting its IFS ranks, equivalent to recruiting consultants from different departments, universities, suppose tanks and elsewhere.

“The IFS lacks capacity, coherence, and clarity,” Mattoo informed DW. “It seems out of sync and out of touch. Surely, it needs lateral enrolment and I think 50% of ambassadors must be out of the diplomatic corps.”

The approval for the cadre overview and restructuring was granted amid plans to open 9 new Indian missions within the coming years.

“India’s diplomatic service has been badly short staffed,” Meera Shankar, India’s former envoy to US, informed DW. “For a country of India’s size and scale and the increasing spread and complexity of its global interaction a more robust diplomatic presence is essential.”

Edited by: Keith Walker