India adding numbers and value to its diplomatic corps

With India's growing global importance creating newer challenges and opportunities for Indian diplomacy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government is seeking to strengthen its diplomatic corps by inducting around 900 officers over the next few years while building expertise in areas like environment, disarmament and security that are increasingly part of the global discourse.

Around 520 new positions are to be added by 2018 to the mainstream Indian Foreign Service (IFS) cadre as part of the IFS expansion plan. Besides, the Ministry of External Affairs also plans to add 380 new positions at the subordinate level during the 10 year period - 2008-18.

For all its size, India has far fewer diplomats than say China, the UK or the US.

The Indian government has drawn up a mandatory mid-career training programme as part of which each IFS officer will have to undergo training three times during the career, after every six-eight years, official sources said.

The new training policy, announced last year, is part of the ministry's effort to "link the training process with what we are supposed to do and to the growing demands of the profession", officials added.

With the field of diplomacy increasing wide, now officers will be required to attain expertise - or have "domain knowledge" - in fields like global warming, disarmament and security issues among others, officials said.

Besides getting newer technology to use the manpower more effectively, the ministry is also inducting experts in fields where they would be having little knowledge, for example railways, the source added. An expert on railways would be useful in countries where India is collaborating or setting up a railway project. Such experts would be inducted on short-term deputation, he said.

While learning a foreign language is a must, emphasis is placed on languages that are spoken in a large number of countries, like French, Spanish and Arabic. With the growing importance of China and India-China relations, a number of IFS officers have taken to learning Chinese, he said.

Though the ministry is taking to the latest and most advanced technology, the "diplomatic bag or pouch" will always remain as a means of confidential diplomatic communication for fear of cyber leakage, they said. The importance of the "diplomatic bag" or a written message holds importance in the wake of the leaks of secret communication - courtesy WikiLeaks and the latest by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.