India to double its diplomatic strength
8 April 2013 2:56 AM GMT
The Indian government is planning to double the number of its diplomats posted in the 162 Indian missions and posts abroad from the mere 600 currently.
External affairs minister Salman Khurshid has begun a series of consultations on this issue and recently met many of the country’s retired ambassadors and distinguished diplomats to understand how the foreign service could be strengthened and used effectively to project Indian policies and power abroad.
Among those he met were former foreign secretaries Maharaj Krishan Rasgotra and Shyam Saran, former cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra, who also served as Indian ambassador to the US, and former secretaries KS Bajpai, SK Lambah and Leela Ponappa.
To a question about what the government was doing to address the shortages in its diplomatic strength, Khurshid had told IANS in a recent interview: ‘We are looking at just this problem. I hope that we will be able to push through a very good plan to bring much great strength to the foreign service.’
He said the union cabinet had recently approved the plan to augment the strength of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS). ‘We have very few (diplomats), we need many more.’
External affairs minister Salman Khurshid has begun a series of consultations on this issue and recently met many of the country’s retired ambassadors and distinguished diplomats to understand how the foreign service could be strengthened and used effectively to project Indian policies and power abroad.
Among those he met were former foreign secretaries Maharaj Krishan Rasgotra and Shyam Saran, former cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra, who also served as Indian ambassador to the US, and former secretaries KS Bajpai, SK Lambah and Leela Ponappa.
To a question about what the government was doing to address the shortages in its diplomatic strength, Khurshid had told IANS in a recent interview: ‘We are looking at just this problem. I hope that we will be able to push through a very good plan to bring much great strength to the foreign service.’
He said the union cabinet had recently approved the plan to augment the strength of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS). ‘We have very few (diplomats), we need many more.’
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