Indian Foreign Service

The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is the diplomatic service and a central civil service of the Government of India under the Ministry of External Affairs. The Foreign Secretary is the head of the service. Vinay Mohan Kwatra is the 34th and the current Foreign Secretary.

The service, consisting of civil servants is entrusted with handling the foreign relations of India, providing consular services and to mark India's presence in international organizations. It is the body of career diplomats serving in more than 160 Indian diplomatic missions and international organizations around the world. In addition, they serve at the President's Secretariat, the Prime Minister's Office and at the headquarters of MEA in New Delhi. They also head Regional Passport Offices throughout the country and hold positions in several ministries on deputation.

Post-retirement, Indian Foreign Service officers have held high offices including that of President, Vice President, Governors of States, Speaker of Lok Sabha, Cabinet ministers.

History

On 13 September 1783, the board of directors of the East India Company passed a resolution at Fort William, Calcutta (now Kolkata), to create a department, which could help "relieve the pressure" on the Warren Hastings administration in conducting its "secret and political business." Although established by the Company, the Indian Foreign Department conducted business with foreign European powers. From the very beginning, a distinction was maintained between the foreign and political functions of the Foreign Department; relations with all "Asiatic powers" (including native princely states) were treated as political, while relations with European powers were treated as foreign.

In 1843, the Governor-General of India, Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough carried out administrative reforms, organizing the Secretariat of the Government into four departments: Foreign, Home, Finance, and Military. Each was headed by a secretary-level officer. The Foreign Department Secretary was entrusted with the "conduct of all correspondence belonging to the external and internal diplomatic relations of the government."

The Government of India Act 1935 attempted to delineate more clearly functions of the foreign and political wings of the Foreign Department, it was soon realized that it was administratively imperative to completely bifurcate the department. Consequently, the External Affairs Department was set up separately under the direct charge of the Governor-General.

The idea of establishing a separate diplomatic service to handle the external activities of the Government of India originated from a note dated 30 September 1944, recorded by Lieutenant-General T. J. Hutton, the Secretary of the Planning and Development Department. When this note was referred to the Department of External Affairs for comments, Olaf Caroe, the Foreign Secretary, recorded his comments in an exhaustive note detailing the scope, composition and functions of the proposed service. Caroe pointed out that as India emerged as autonomous, it was imperative to build up a system of representation abroad that would be in complete harmony with the objectives of the future government.

On 9 October 1946, the Indian government established the Indian Foreign Service for India's diplomatic, consular and commercial representation overseas. With independence, there was a near-complete transition of the Foreign and Political Department into what then became the new Ministry of External Affairs.

Indian Foreign Service Day is celebrated on 9 October every year since 2011 to commemorate the day the Indian Cabinet created the Foreign Service.

Selection 

Officers of the Indian Foreign Service are recruited by the Government of India on the recommendation of the Union Public Service Commission. In 1948, the first group of Indian Foreign Service officers were recruited based on the Civil Services Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission This exam is still used to select new foreign service officers. Previous to 1948, some were appointed directly by the Prime Minister and included former native rulers of India who had integrated their provinces into India.

Fresh recruits to the Indian Foreign Service are trained at Sushma Swaraj Foreign Service Institute after a brief foundation course at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. In recent years, the number of candidates selected to the Indian Foreign Service has averaged between 25 and 30 annually.

Training
On acceptance to the Foreign Service, new entrants undergo significant training, which is considered to be one of the most challenging and longest service trainings in the Government of India and nearly takes more than 1 year to graduate from. The entrants undergo a probationary period (during which they are referred to as Officer Trainees). Training begins at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie, where members of the other elite Indian civil services are trained.

After completing a 15-week training at the LBSNAA, the probationers join the Sushma Swaraj Foreign Service Institute, India in New Delhi for a more intensive training in a host of subjects important to diplomacy, including international relations theory, military diplomacy, trade, India's foreign policy, history, international law, diplomatic practice, hospitality, protocol and administration. They also go on attachments with different government bodies and defense (Army, Navy, Air Force, CAPF) establishments and undertake tours both in India and Indian missions abroad. The entire training program lasts for a period of 12 months.

Upon the completion of the training program at the institute, an officer is assigned a compulsory foreign language (CFL) training. After a brief period of desk attachment in the Ministry of External Affairs, at the rank of Assistant Secretary, the officer is posted to an Indian diplomatic mission abroad where her/his CFL is the native language. There the officer undergoes language training and is expected to develop proficiency in the CFL and pass an examination before being allowed to continue in the service.

Functions

As a career diplomat, the Foreign Service Officer is required to project India's interests, both at home and abroad on a wide variety of issues. These include bilateral political and economic cooperation, trade and investment promotion, cultural interaction, press and media liaison as well as a whole host of multilateral issues.

 Serving as India's Representative: Foreign Service Officers work in Indian Embassies, High Commissions, Consulates, and Permanent Missions to multilateral organizations like the UN, where they act as the official representatives of India.
 Protecting India's Interests: They are tasked with safeguarding and advancing India's national interests in the country where they are posted.
 Fostering Friendly Relations: Diplomats promote and cultivate friendly relations between India and the host country, including its people, as well as with Non-Resident Indians (NRI) and People of Indian Origin (PIO) communities.
 Accurate Reporting: Foreign Service Officers provide precise and timely reports on developments in the host country that may impact India's policies.
 Negotiating Agreements: They engage in negotiations with the authorities of the host country to establish agreements on a range of issues.
 Consular Services: Diplomats extend consular services to both foreign nationals in need and Indian citizens residing abroad, ensuring they receive necessary assistance and support.

Rank structure

In Indian missions abroad, the highest-ranking officials are the Heads of Missions, who holds the rank of ambassadors, high commissioners, and permanent representatives. They leads the various embassies, high commissions, and intergovernmental organisations worldwide. Heads of Posts are Consul Generals who heads Consulate Generals in missions abroad. In MEA headquarters, the highest-ranking official among the secretaries is the Foreign Secretary. The below rank structure is for Indian Foreign Service officers who directly enter the service, in ascending order of ranks.

Major concerns and reforms

Under strength
India has one of the most understaffed diplomatic forces of any major country in the world. Based on 2014 calculations there are about 2,700 "diplomatic rank" officers in overseas missions and at headquarters. A minority of the diplomatic officers are Foreign Service (A) officers, the senior cadre of Indian diplomacy, which is primarily drawn from direct recruitment through the Civil Services Examination. Although sanctioned strength was 912, the actual strength of Group A was 770 officers in 2014. In addition there were in 2014, 252 Grade-I officers of Indian Foreign Service (B) General Cadre who after promotion are inducted into Indian Foreign Service (A). The lower grades of the Indian Foreign Service(B) General Cadre included 635 attaches. The breakdown of other cadres and personnel included 540 secretarial staff, 33 from the Interpreters Cadre, 24 from the Legal and Treaties Cadre, and 310 personnel from other Ministries.

Shashi Tharoor, a chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, had presented the 12th report for expanding and building the numbers, quality and capacity of India's diplomats.

In March 2023, Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs criticized the service for being severely short-staffed and under-budgeted. In its Demand for Grants (2023–24) report, the committee highlighted that the cadre strength of Indian Foreign Service Officers is only 1,011 which is just 22.5 percent of the total strength. Out of IFS 'A' cadre, 667 are posted at our Missions abroad and 334 are manning the headquarters in Delhi which at present has 57 divisions.

Declining prestige and quality
Since its inception and especially in the early decades of the service, the Indian Foreign Service had a reputation for attracting the country's most talented civil service aspirants. The quality of candidates based on exam rank has significantly declined and the quality of candidates has created concerns about harm to prestige in expanding the size of the service.

In the 1960s and 1970s, exam toppers generally in the top 20 opted for the Indian Foreign Service over the Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service, the other elite civil services. By late 1980s, the dip was appreciable and Indian Foreign Service spots did not fill until reaching much deeper down the list. The Indian Foreign Service continues in recent years to have difficulty in attracting the most promising candidates. For the 2017 Civil Services Exam, only 5 of the top 100 candidates chose the Indian Foreign Service with the last ranking person from the General Category in the 152th position. For candidates with reservation status, a candidate from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the 640th position closed the list for Indian Foreign Service. The Indian Foreign Service has become less attractive due to higher pay in corporate jobs, other elite civil services like the All India Services promising more power, and fading glamour as foreign travel became common place.

A parliamentary committee reviewing Indian Foreign Service reform in 2016 feared a negative feedback loop with the "deterioration" in candidate quality as both a "both a symptom and a reason for the erosion of prestige in the Indian Foreign Service". However, the committee was hard pressed to address the issue because it was also concerned about increasing the "quantity" of Indian diplomats. T. P. Sreenivasan, a retired Foreign Service officer, argued in 2015 that "elitism should be preserved" for the Indian Foreign Service to perform effectively. He further lamented the Indian Foreign Service "is already a shadow of its former self" which dissuaded aspirants and the service needed to have its "attractiveness enhanced".

Indian Foreign Service, Branch B
The Indian Foreign Service, Branch B, abbreviated as IFS (B), has two cadres: the General cadre and the Stenographers' cadre. Recruitments are made through separate competitive exams conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC). For distinction, the IFS is sometimes unofficially referred to as IFS (A) by the media. Until 2009, both General cadre and Stenographers' cadre personnel were absorbed to IFS after serving prescribed number of years. Officers from both cadres who had joined IFS has had reached up to the post of ambassadors, mostly from Stenographers' Cadre. In 2009, the path to promotion to IFS was closed for the Stenographers cadre.

In 2012, a counsellor at high commission in Fiji, originally from Stenographer's cadre, who had not joined the IFS was appointed as ambassador to North Korea. A senior MEA official said, they had no choice since no one from the IFS had wanted the posting in Pyongyang. Three IFS (B) general cadre associations protested by writing to the Prime Minister's Office and the MEA, requesting to review the appointment. According to a senior MEA official, this was not the first time such appointments had occurred, mentioning past instances from the Interpreters' cadre and Cypher sub-cadre, and also recalled a previous appointment from the Stenographers' cadre as an ambassador in North Korea.

Notable Indian Foreign Service Officers 

Ajay Bisaria
Asaf Ali, former Governor of Odisha
Abhay K
Abid Hasan, a former officer of Indian National Army
Arundhati Ghose
Benegal Rama Rau, 4th Governor of Reserve Bank of India
Brajesh Mishra, 1st National Security Advisor
Binay Ranjan Sen, Director General of FAO (1956–67)
C. B. Muthamma
Chokila Iyer, 23rd Foreign Secretary of India
Gautam Bambawale, former ambassador to China and Pakistan
Gopalaswami Parthasarathy, former Vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University
Hamid Ansari, former Vice President of India (2007–17)
Hardeep Singh Puri, current cabinet minister (2014–present)
Harsh Vardhan Shringla, former Foreign Secretary of India
J N Dixit, 2nd National Security Advisor & former Foreign Secretary
Kamlesh Sharma, former Commonwealth Secretary-General
Kanwal Sibal, former Foreign Secretary
Kewal Singh, former Foreign Secretary
K. M. Panikkar
K.P.S. Menon
K. R. Narayanan, 10th President of India and 9th Vice President of India
K. Raghunath, former Foreign Secretary
Lakshmi Kant Jha, 8th Governor of Reserve Bank of India
Lalit Mansingh
Maharaja Krishna Rasgotra
Mani Shankar Aiyar
Meira Kumar, 15th Speaker of the Lok Sabha (2009–14)
Nalin Surie
Natarajan Krishnan, President of the UNSC
Natwar Singh, former Minister of External Affairs
Nirupama Rao, former Foreign Secretary
Pankaj Saran, former Deputy National Security Advisor
Ranjan Mathai, former Foreign Secretary
Raveesh Kumar
Ronen Sen, former Ambassador to USA, UK, Russia, Germany and South Korea
Ruchira Kamboj, 1st women Permanent Representatives of India to the UN 
Salman Haider, former Foreign Secretary
Shashank
Shivshankar Menon, 4th National Security Advisor
Shyam Saran, 26th Foreign Secretary of India
Subimal Dutt, 3rd Foreign Secretary of India
S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs (2019–present)
Sujatha Singh
Syed Akbaruddin, former India's Permanent Representative to the UN
T. N. Kaul
T. S. Tirumurti
Venu Rajamony
Vijay K. Nambiar, Chef de Cabinet of the United Nations (2007–12)
Vijay Keshav Gokhale, 32nd Foreign Secretary of India
Vinay Mohan Kwatra

Vikas Swarup, eminent writer
Vikram Misri, Deputy National Security Advisor
Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, current Chief Information Commissioner of India

Notes

References

External links

Official website of Foreign Service Institute India

Central Civil Services (India)
Foreign relations of India
Indian Foreign Service