Shining foreign service

The Government's efforts to open the doors of the Ministry of External Affairs, even if only slightly, to persons from outside the Foreign Service, must be welcomed. On Friday, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar told Parliament's Standing Committee on External Affairs that the MEA will begin the lateral entry process soon. For now, the entrants will be restricted to the Policy Planning and Research Division, but there is talk that eventually they may also be allowed to take up diplomatic duties. This is an important development that has the potential to radically improve the functioning of the MEA. The Ministry is terribly under-staffed, and our diplomats are so busy fire-fighting that they often do not have the opportunity to sit back, look at the larger picture and shape plans for the future. This is one of the most important reasons why the crucial PPR Division has been neglected all these years. India's tiny diplomatic corps simply cannot do justice to the country's foreign policy imperatives — which are set to expand and become more demanding, as India's profile as a global power becomes bigger and heavier. Currently, the Indian Foreign Service has about 770 officers who man around 162 Indian missions abroad and also manage the Ministry in New Delhi.

In addition, there are another 400 officials who make up the support staff, such as interpreters and paralegals. Now compare these numbers to the 1,200 foreign service officers that Brazil has, or the 45,000 that handle China's foreign policy — not to mention the 20,000 diplomats who work in the US State Department. Even a city-state like Singapore has about 900 diplomats. The lack of manpower was identified as one of the four main problems plaguing the foreign policy establishment, as far back as 1965 by the NR Pillai committee. In the five decades since, the numbers have improved only marginally. In recent years, the annual intake of diplomats has gone up, from less than a dozen to just about 30 officers now. Yes, there is a plan to recruit a larger number of diplomats every year and that should be pursued, but it will take time to build up capacity at all levels. In such a situation, external recruits can help fill the gaps. 

lateral entrants, derived from academia and industry, will bring in some much-needed fresh thinking into the foreign office. Such appointments are routine within the American and Russian foreign offices, for example, and they help augment manpower capabilities and internal knowledge systems. Also, because these appointments are usually for a short term, the appointees return to their universities or think tanks, taking with them the valuable experience of having worked within the Government machinery. This then informs their work in the outside world, which means, for example, that, policy recommendations from think tanks and consultancy firms or research being done at universities is more practical, realistic and in sync with what the Government needs and does.