India’s Export Scenario

  India, which had a global share of 2.4 per cent in trade at the time of independence, dropped to a mere 0.7 per cent in 1991 because of inward looking policy of self-reliance and exporting only the surplus. The balance of payment crisis in 1991 rightly brought about a change in India’s economic philosophy. This change resulted in opening up the economy and a new foreign trade policy that resulted in India’s two way trade in both merchandise and services reach nearly $ one trillion annually from a mere $70-80 billion in 1991. But the question is have we done enough. While India’s share in global merchandise trade has gone up to 1.7 per cent in 2013-14 from 0.7 per cent in 1991, China’s has gone up to a whopping 11.8 per cent from 1.8 per cent in the same period. In Services trade, India, which had a slight edge two decades ago because of IT software, had gone up from 1.2 per cent of global share in 1991 to 3 per cent in 2013-14. China whose share was a mere 0.5 per cent in global services trade in 1991, has gone up to 4 per cent in 2013. The figures speak for themselves. While we have gone a long way in trade since the opening up, India has not done enough to realise its true potential.

            Twenty-five years since trade liberalization started in India, but there lot of fixing is still needed. The new foreign trade policy announced by Commerce and Industry Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman in April this year attempts to fix some of the problems in bid to reach $900 billion of merchandise and services exports annually in five years.  This meant total two-way trade is expected to double from the present $1 trillion to $2 trillion annually in the next five years. This is a gigantic task considering that global economy is still struggling to gain momentum. 

            The global outlook has certain positives and negatives. Lower global oil prices helped oil importing countries like India as it imported nearly 80 per cent of its requirement.  But lower oil prices hit the oil exporting economies like West Asia and this contributed to slowing down of exports from India and west Asia is one of the major importer of Indian goods and services. So, softening of commodity prices globally had certain advantages and disadvantages to India’s trade. Also there is volatility in exchange rates and this impacts trade badly.  Indian exporters always say that more than appreciating or depreciating currency, volatility in exchange rates poses greater danger to trade.

            Though this bleak global outlook provided lot of challenges to India’s trade, it has also provided opportunity to fix the problems faced by India to make its trade more competitive. The new foreign trade policy has sought to address some of them. Trade facilitation and ease of doing business are the two major impediments to pushing India’s trade. While it takes six hours for a ship to turnaround that is to off-load and up load and leave in Singapore on an average, it takes six days for a ship to turnaround in any of the major Indian ports. Also the road connectivity to ports is so bad that it delays container movements. The huge container ships and tankers cannot land in any of the major ports because of low draft as result of which there has to be trans-shipment at Colombo or Singapore increasing cost to exporters. The paperwork is much more in India than elsewhere in the world.

            It is precisely for this reason the new Foreign Trade Policy considers these two challenges --trade facilitation and ease of doing business, as major focus areas. Recently government reduced the number of mandatory documents required for exports and imports to three, which is comparable with international benchmarks. A facility has been created now for uploading documents in exporter or importer profile and the exporters will not be required to submit documents repeatedly. Government has also made an attempt to simplify various “Aayat Niryat” forms, bringing in clarity in different provisions, removing ambiguities and enhancing electronic governance.

            One of the problems manufacturing exporters complain is inadequate and erratic power supply.  This creates problems for exporters to keep up the schedule for delivery. As a result exporters forced to go diesel generators for power backup raising the cost. One unit of thermal power costs Rs 4-5 per unit whereas diesel power costs around Rs 15 per unit and sometimes Rs 3-4 per unit more because of large scale of diesel pilferage in the country.  Government’s ambitious programme in the power sector will help ease this problem. Government proposes to add 2.66 lakh Mw of additional power including 100,000 mw of solar power with an investment of over $300 billion in the next five years. This will help India’s trade particularly manufactured exports.  The foreign trade policy provides a necessary framework for increasing exports of goods and services as well as job creation and increasing value addition in the country.

            The new FTP lays down a road map for India’s global trade engagement in the coming years and measures required for trade promotion, infrastructure development and overall enhancement of trade eco system, according to the Commerce minister.  But government should be careful while entering into regional trade agreements as there are fears that they are being increasingly used by global corporates to make emerging economies to bend and rule by proxy.  The tough negotiations by India in the India-EU free trade agreement went to show, India would not give in that easily to corporate lobby through their governments in those countries.

            The five year trade policy also introduces two new schemes – Merchandise exports from Indian scheme for export of specified gods to specified markets and Services Exports from India scheme for increasing exports of notified services in place of plethora of schemes earlier with different condition for eligibility and usage. This is yet another step in moving towards ease of doing business. Measures have also been taken to give boost to defence and hi-tech exports.  Robots are increasingly replacing some of the mundane and hazardous jobs done by workers like in the paint shop and precision work. This is an area where India could leapfrog and overtake China in this new export frontier. Government should lay special emphasis to cash-in this sector.

            Inverted duty structure of raw materials and intermediary goods was one area that was bothering manufacturing sector and their exports particularly in the electronics sector. Over $40 billion of electronics goods are being imported, next only to oil and gold imports in the country. This is being sought to be addressed by the new electronics policy, which aims to attract up to $400 billion investments in the sector in the coming years. Also finance minister Sh Arun Jaitley has addressed some of the inverted duty structure issue in his last two budgets and foreign trade policy promises to do more.

Overall, the new foreign trade policy is on the right track some of major woes of    exporters in pushing up India’s trade. It has started with right earnest. The previous trade policy was to take India’s merchandise exports to $500 billion annually by 2013-14 but ended up with $312 billion in 2013-14, a way off the mark. Global economic situation was said to be the reason for not achieving the target. One only hope the same thing is not repeated.

Health Survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO)

A Health Survey Indicates that During 15 Day Reference Period 89 Per 1000 Persons Reported Illness in Rural India Against 118 Persons in Urban Areas. Howover, Un-Treated Spell Was Higher in Rural (Both for Male and Female) than Urban Areas.

A Health Survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) has indicated that during a 15 day reference period 89 per 1000 persons reported illness in rural India against 118 persons-Proportion (per 1000) of Ailing Persons (PAP) in urban areas. However, un-treated spell was higher in rural (both for male and female) than urban areas. Private Doctors were the most important single source of treatment in both the sectors (Rural & Urban). More than 70% (72 per cent in the rural areas and 79 per cent in the urban areas) spells of ailment were treated in the private sector. Inclination towards allopathic treatment was prevalent (around 90% in both the sectors).

            The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released the key indicators of Social Consumption in India: Health, generated from the data collected during the period January to June 2014 in its 71^st round survey.

NSS Surveys on morbidity are being conducted from 28^th round (1973-1974) and the last survey was conducted in NSS 60^th round (January to June 2004).

              The survey on Social Consumption: Health conducted during the period January to June 2014 aimed at generating basic quantitative information on the health sector. One of the vital components of the survey was dedicated to collect information relevant for determination of the prevalence rate of different diseases among various age-sex groups in different regions of the country. Further, measurement of the extent of use of health services provided by the Government was an important part of this exercise. Special attention was given to hospitalisation i.e. medical care received as in-patient of medical institutions. The ailments for which such medical care was sought, the extent of use of Government hospitals as well as different levels of public health care institutions, and the expenditure incurred on treatment received from public and private sectors, were investigated by the survey. Break-up of expenditure by various heads was estimated for expenses on medical care received both as in-patient and otherwise.

 The detailed results of this survey on health are planned to be brought out by the NSSO through a main report.  In order to make available the salient results of the survey well in advance of the release of its report for use in planning, policy formulation, and decision support and as input for further statistical exercises, the NSSO has released the key indicators.

            The key indicators are based on the Central sample consisting of 4,577 villages in rural areas and 3,720 urban blocks spread over all States and Union Territories of India. The information was collected through a schedule (25.0) from a set of sample households during the period January to June 2014. The total number of households in which Schedule was canvassed, was 36480 in rural India and 29452 in urban India.

Key Indicators of Social Consumption in India on Education Show Continued Gender Gap and Rural Urban Differences

Key Indicators of Social Consumption in India on Education Show Continued Gender Gap and Rural Urban Differences

In rural areas, literacy rate was seen as 71% compared to 86% in urban areas. Also among persons of age 7 years and above male literacy rate being substantially higher (83%) than female literacy rate (67%).  Similarly it was found in the rural areas, nearly 4.5% of males and 2.2% of females completed education level of ‘graduation and above’ while in the urban areas 17% of males and 13% of females completed this level of education.

These were the details found from survey on “Social Consumption: Education” during National Sample Survey (NSS) 71^st Round, January to June 2014 conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Similar survey was conducted by NSSO during July 2007 - June 2008 as a part of its 64^th Round. 

Other details of the survey  released by NSSO as the Key Indicators of Social Consumption in India: Education are as follows: 

In most of the countries, government spend a substantial amount of financial resources on the creation as well as running of the educational infrastructure. However, for availing such facilities, individuals pursuing education also incur expenditure in the form of tuition fees, examination fees, charges for stationery, books, etc. Thoughinformation on the expenditure incurred by the governments is available in budget documents, the data on education expenditure made by individuals have to be collected through specialised household surveys. The main objective of survey on ‘Social Consumption: Education’ was to assess the (a) participation of persons aged 5-29 years in pursuit of education, (b) extent of use of educational infrastructure, facilities and incentives provided by Government, (c) private expenditure incurred by households on education, (d) the extent of educational wastage in terms of dropping-out and discontinuance and its causes, and (e) IT literacy of persons aged 14 years and above.

The survey covered entire country with samples taken from 36,479 households in rural areas and 29,447 households in urban areas from 4,577 villages and 3,720 urban blocks.

Some key indicators on various aspects of social consumption on education in the country as obtained from the survey during January-June 2014 are as follows:

I.         Literacy[1] rates

·        Literacy rate among persons of age 7 years and above in India was 75%. In rural areas, literacy rate was 71% compared to 86% in urban areas.

·        Differences in literacy rate among persons of age 7 years and above was observed with male literacy rate being substantially higher (83%) than female literacy rate (67%).

·        Adult literacy (age 15 years and above) rate in India was around 71%. For adults also, literacy rate in rural areas was lower than that in urban areas. In rural areas, adult literacy rate was 64% as compared to 84% in urban areas.

II.         Accessibility of nearest primary, upper primary and secondary school

·        No significant difference between rural and urban India existed in terms of distance for physical access to primary schooling. In both rural and urban areas, nearly 99% households reported availability of primary school within 2 kms from the house.

·        For accessing educational institutions providing higher level of learning, say upper primary or secondary, a lower proportion of households in rural areas compared to the households in urban areas reported existence of such facilities within 2 kms.

·        Nearly 86% of rural households and 96% of urban households reported upper primary schools within a distance of 2 kms from the house while nearly 60% of rural households and 91% of urban households reported secondary schools at such a distance.

III.         Completed level of education among persons of age 5 years and above

·               The proportion of persons having completed higher level of education, say, graduation and above, was more in the urban areas than in the rural areas.

·               In the rural areas, nearly 4.5% of males and 2.2% of females completed education level of ‘graduation and above’ while in the urban areas 17% of males and 13% of females completed this level of education.

IV.         Attendance and enrolment

·        In both rural and urban areas, a very small proportion of persons (nearly 1 per cent) in the age group 5-29 years, were currently enrolled but not attending educational institutions.

·        In rural areas 58.7% of males and 53% of females in the 5-29 age-group were currently attending educational institution. In urban areas, the percentages being 57% for males and 54.6% for females.

V.            Attendance ratios

·        Gross Attendance Ratio for level ‘primary’ was nearly 100% for both males and females in rural and urban areas.

·        Gross Attendance Ratio at level ‘primary to higher secondary’ was 91% and 88% for rural males and females respectively, marginally lower as compared to 93% for both males and females in urban sector.

·        Net Attendance Ratio in India at primary level was 84% for male and 83% for female children in the age-group 6-10 years, the official age-group for Classes I-V.

·        There was no major rural-urban or male-female disparity at all-India level till elementary level (primary and upper primary) in the Net Attendance Ratio.  

VI.         Current attendance by type of education

·        In India nearly 85% of the students in age-group 15-29 years were pursuing general education

·        Nearly 12.6% and 2.4 % students in age-group 15-29 years were attending technical/professional and vocational courses respectively

VII.         Attendance by type of courses

·        Among the male students pursuing general education, 46% were pursuing humanities as compared to 54% of the female students, 35% of the male students were pursuing science compared to 28% female students and 20% of the male students were pursuing commerce compared to 18% of the female students.

·        Among the male students pursing technical/professional education, 46% were pursuing engineering compared to 29% of the female students and 4% of the male students were pursuing medicine (including nursing) compared to 14% of the female students.

VIII.         Type of institution attended

·        In rural areas, majority of the students were attending government institutions predominantly up to higher secondary levels, whereas a completely different picture was observed in urban areas.

·        In rural areas, 72% of the students at primary level, 76% at upper primary level and 64% at secondary & higher secondary level attended Government institutions, while in urban areas, 31% at primary level, 38% at upper primary level as well as  secondary & higher secondary level, attended Government institutions.

IX.         Incentives received

·        Almost 94% students from rural areas and 87% students from urban areas at primary level studying in government institutions were receiving free education.

·        At upper primary level, 89% students in rural areas and 80% students in urban areas, studying in government institutions were receiving free education.

·        At secondary and higher secondary level, 58% students in rural areas and 52% students in urban areas, studying in government institutions, received free education.

·        63% of students at primary level and 62% of students at upper primary level received mid-day meal.

X.         Private coaching

·        At the all-India level, nearly 26% of the students were taking private coaching.

XI.         Students staying in hostel

·        Nearly 5% of the students in India were staying in hostel for study.

XII.         Private expenditure on education

·      Average expenditure (₹) per student incurred and/or to be incurred during the current academic session was nearly ₹ 6788 for general education, ₹ 62841 for technical/professional (exceptvocational) and ₹ 27676 for vocational course

·      At primary level, expenditure per student in urban areas was ₹ 10083, more than four times than that in rural areas (₹ 2811).

·        Average expenditure on technical education in private aided & unaided institutions varied between nearly 1.5-2.5 times of that in government institutions.

·        Nearly 46% of the expenditure for general education and 73% of the expenditure for technical education was on course fee.

·        For students pursuing general courses, 15% was spent on private coaching as against 3% for students pursuing technical/professional education (including vocational).

XIII.         Never-enrolment and discontinuance of education

·        In India, nearly 11% of the persons of age 5-29 years in rural areas and 6% in urban areas never enrolled in any educational institution.

·        In India, proportion of persons in the age group 5-29 years dropping out/discontinued studies werenearly 33% in rural areas and 38% in urban areas.

·        For the males of age 5-29 years, engagement in economic activities was the most common reason for dropping out (30% in rural areas and 34% in urban areas), whereas for the females, the dominant reason was engagement in domestic activities (33% in rural areas and 23% in urban areas).

·        In rural areas, the major reason for  never enrolment for persons of age 5-29 years was ‘not interested in education’ (33% male and 27% female) while in urban areas, nearly 33% males and 30% females  in the age group 5-29 years never  enrolled  because of ‘financial contraints’.

XIV.         Access to computer and internet

·        Nearly 6% of rural households and 29% of urban household possessed computer.

·        In India, among households with at least one member of age 14 years and above, nearly 27% had internet access in the survey year, 2014. The proportions were 16% among rural households and 49% of urban households.

·        Among persons of age 14-29 years, nearly 18% in rural areas and 49% in urban areas were able to operate a computer.

A publication based on above cited Key Indicators is also available on the website (www.mospi.gov.in) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Census data on disabled population released

Census data on disabled population released

The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India has released data on disabled population by type of disability, type of households and sex – 2011. The data gives the number of households having disabled persons by type of households including normal, institutional and houseless households. The disabled persons living in different type of households are further cross-classified into eight different disabilities i.e. seeing, hearing, speech, movement, mental retardation, mental illness, any other and multiple disability for India/States/UTs.

The data released shows 207.8 lakh households having disabled persons in the country constituting 8.3 percent of the total households. Out of the total households having disabled persons, about 99 percent households are normal households, 0.4 percent are institutional and 0.2 percent are houseless households.

Total households having disabled persons show an increase of 20.5 lakhs, from 187.3 lakhs in 2001 to 207.8 lakhs in 2011 (6.2 lakhs in rural and 14.3 lakhs in urban). Normal households increased by 2,02,4495, institutional households by 8,370 and houseless households by 13,560 during the decade 2001-11.

Disabled persons in normal households increased by 48,19,382, institutional households by 65,895 and houseless households by 22,948 during the said decade.

Government places highest priority on strengthening the health sector

Government places highest priority on strengthening the health sector

Seeks partnership of the private sector to provide accessible & affordable healthcare

“The government places the highest priority to strengthening the health sector in the country. There is the highest level of political commitment for this” stated Shri J P Nadda, Minister for Health and Family Welfare stated this while delivering the keynote address at the Health and Immunisation Conference organised by the CII, at New Delhi today.

Shri Nadda stated that the National Health Mission (NHM), comprising of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), aims towards providing accessible, affordable, accountable, and effective primary healthcare facilities, especially to the rural population of the country with a particular emphasis on poor and vulnerable sections of the population. It encompasses programmes to cater to requirements of pregnant women, children and communicable as well as non-communicable diseases. He added that reducing maternal and child mortality are the foremost goals of National Health Mission, which has significantly fostered plans for child health in decentralised manner up-to district level. Steady progress in curbing child deaths has been achieved. India’s Under 5 Mortality Rate declined from 126 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 49 per 1,000 live births in 2013, the Minister informed.

The Health Minister said that Mission Indradhanush has been able to fill in the gap in fully immunising children who have been left unvaccinated or are partially vaccinated under the routine immunisation programme. Three rounds have been completed and the fourth round will start from 7th July, the Health Minister stated. The Minister added that of all the methods of preventing the under-5 mortality, immunization is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions for protecting children from life threatening conditions, which are preventable. He stated that during these immunization rounds, 56.6 lakh children have been vaccinated and a total of 14.4 lakh children were fully vaccinated. Also, a total of 15.7 lakh pregnant women were vaccinated with tetanus toxoid vaccine during these three rounds. Shri Nadda also stated that cold chain network in the country has been the backbone of the Immunization Programme to ensure that right quantity/ quality of vaccines reach the target population.

The Health Minister sought the participation and partnership of the private sector in providing accessible, affordable and cost effective health care services in the country to complement the efforts of the government. He stated that with the support of the private sector, we will be able to further strengthen the Cold Chain and Supply Management system in the country. 

Digital India Week

Digital India Week

Several initiatives have been taken for introduction of Information Technology to empower people.  Some of the initiatives have resulted in development of products to extend various services in areas relating to health, education, labour and employment, commerce etc.  The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi would launch the Digital India Week this evening urging people to gain knowledge and  to empower themselves  through the Digital India Programme of his Government.

Digital India has been envisioned as an ambitious umbrella programme to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. It comprises of various initiatives under the single programme each targeted to prepare India for becoming a knowledge economy and for bringing good governance to citizens through synchronized and co-ordinated engagement of the entire Government. 

This programme has been envisaged and coordinated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) in collaboration with various Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments. The Prime Minister as the Chairman of Monitoring Committee on Digital India, activities under the Digital India initiative is being carefully monitored. All the existing and ongoing e-Governance initiatives have been revamped to align them with the principles of Digital India.

The vision of Digital India programme also aims at inclusive growth in areas of electronic services, products, manufacturing and job opportunities etc. The vision of Digital India is centred on three key areas -

(i)      Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen

(ii)    Governance & Services on Demand and

(iii)   Digital Empowerment of Citizens

With the above vision, the Digital India programme aims to provide Broadband Highways, Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity,  Public Internet Access Programme,  E-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology, eKranti - Electronic Delivery of Services, Information for All, Electronics Manufacturing: Target Net Zero Imports,  IT for Jobs  and Early Harvest Programmes. Several projects/products have already launched or ready to be launched as indicated below:

·        Digital Locker System aims to minimize the usage of physical documents and enable sharing of e-documents across agencies. The sharing of the e-documents will be done through registered repositories thereby ensuring the authenticity of the documents online.

·        MyGov.in has been implemented as a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through a “Discuss”, “Do” and “Disseminate” approach. The mobile App for MyGov would bring these features to users on a mobile phone.

·        Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app would be used by people and Government organizations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.

·        eSign framework would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar authentication.

·     The Online Registration System (ORS) under the eHospital application has been introduced. This application provides important services such as online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring availability of blood online etc.

·     National Scholarships Portal is a one stop solution for end to end scholarship process right from submission of student application, verification, sanction and disbursal to end beneficiary for all the scholarships provided by the Government of India.

·     DeitY has undertaken an initiative namely Digitize India Platform (DIP) for large scale digitization of records in the country that would facilitate efficient delivery of services to the citizens.

·     The Government of India has undertaken an initiative namely Bharat Net, a high speed digital highway to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of country. This would be the world’s largest rural broadband connectivity project using optical fibre.

·     BSNL has introduced Next Generation Network (NGN), to replace 30 year old exchanges, which is an IP based technology to manage all types of services like voice, data, multimedia/ video and other types of packet switched communication services.

·     BSNL has undertaken large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country. The user can latch on the BSNL Wi-Fi network through their mobile devices.

·     To deliver citizen services electronically and improve the way citizens and authorities transact with each other, it is imperative to have ubiquitous connectivity. The government also realises this need as reflected by including ‘broadband highways’ as one of the pillars of Digital India.  While connectivity is one criterion, enabling and providing technologies to facilitate delivery of services to citizens forms the other.

      Policy initiatives have also been undertaken by DeitY in the e- Governance domain like e-Kranti Framework, Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software for Government of India, Framework for Adoption of Open Source Software in e-Governance Systems, Policy on Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for Government of India, E-mail Policy of Government of India, Policy on Use of IT Resources of Government of India, Policy on Collaborative Application Development by Opening the Source Code of Government Applications, Application Development & Re-Engineering Guidelines for Cloud Ready Applications

·     BPO Policy has been approved to create BPO centres in different North Eastern states and also in smaller / mofussil towns of other states.

·     Electronics Development Fund (EDF) Policy aims to promote Innovation, R&D, and Product Development and to create a resource pool of IP within the country to create a self-sustaining eco-system of Venture Funds.

·     National Centre for Flexible Electronics (NCFlexE) is an initiative of Government of India to promote research and innovation in the emerging area of Flexible Electronics.

·     Centre of Excellence on Internet on Things (IoT) is a joint initiative of Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), ERNET and NASSCOM.

The estimated impact of Digital India by 2019 would be cross cutting, ranging from broadband connectivity in all Panchayats, Wi-fi in schools and universities and Public Wi-Fihotspots. The programme will generate huge number of IT, Telecom and Electronics jobs, both directly and indirectly. Success of this programme will make India Digitally empowered and the leader in usage of IT in delivery of services related to various domains such as health, education, agriculture, banking, etc.

Foreign Service must remain elitist

As the Indian Foreign Service is already a shadow of its former self, India should not fritter away its strengths by diluting its specialised and professional character

Whether at the time of uncertainty over foreign policy before the Lok Sabha elections, or after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reinvigoration of foreign policy, foreign service reforms have focussed on expansion, lateral entry of officers and general dilution of the service’s elitist character. But no attention is given to the fact that the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is already a shadow of its former self, and does not appeal to civil service aspirants. Most of those who join the IFS are those who did not qualify for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). If IFS has to perform effectively, its elitism should be preserved, its attractiveness enhanced, and it should be brought to the centre of international relations as it was originally intended to be.

Partners in foreign policy

Nobody disputes the academic Amitabh Mattoo’s argument that “India’s foreign policy must be seen as a shared partnership across departments within the government of India, and academia and think tanks outside the traditional corridors of power” (“A new foreign policy agenda”, The Hindu, April 8, 2014). But the answer is not to merge the various partners while destroying the identity of each, but to allow each of them to develop in their own spheres and provide inputs to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). No one seems to suggest that the IAS and Indian Police Service should be expanded through lateral entry to improve their performance. The logic of this argument for the IFS seems to defy the need to preserve a specialised and professional foreign service. IFS, it should be noted, is no less professional or specialised than the other services.

Foreign policy is framed by various departments of the government, academia, think tanks and the media. They should all have their own defined roles in drafting foreign policy and must remain independent of each other. The MEA should not absorb them into a monolithic institution that has no diversity. Think tanks and the media should shape foreign policy from outside rather than from within the government. Is the right remedy to recruit media experts into the IFS in order to get their inputs on foreign policy? Would they fit into the bureaucratic milieu with its hierarchical and political constraints?

The usual lament is that the IFS is smaller (900 officers) than Chinese (4,000) and American (20,000) diplomatic services. This number is insufficient to meet the requirements of our 120 missions and 49 consulates. It is a fact that India started off with more missions than it could manage. It is not easy or politically correct to close down missions once they have begun; India, therefore, maintains them with a skeletal staff in marginal posts. Its larger missions are well-endowed and it does not need to be envious of bigger missions maintained by the U.S. or China. The right mix of need and affordability must determine the numbers. The information revolution should lead to a reduction, rather than an increase, in the number of missions abroad. The size of the service should not by itself detract from the efficiency of diplomacy.

Those who argue for expansion and lateral entry seem unaware of the fact that in most of India’s important missions, the IFS is in a minority, as it is staffed by officers of other Ministries. Many Ministries have preserved positions in the name of specialisation, but most of them are IAS officers, who may have been recruited specifically for assignments abroad. They may not even have gained experience in the concerned Ministries before being posted abroad. When there is such a practice, there should be no need to induct them into the foreign service itself. Moreover, Ministries such as Commerce, Finance, Industry, Environment, Science and Technology, Atomic Energy, Space and the Cabinet Secretariat have officers who specialise in various international negotiations. The missions are merely asked to service these delegations; even the heads of mission receive only a courtesy call and a cursory report. These officers function, in effect, as diplomats, and they should be added to the strength of the IFS when functional requirements are taken into account. In other words, we have more diplomats in action internationally than the strength of the IFS indicates.

If officers who claim their seniority on the basis of their services in totally unrelated areas enter the IFS laterally, this would only dilute the service’s quality. Past experience has shown that such entrants do not leave the service after a term or two, but remain to claim higher positions, spending their whole careers in diplomacy. If there is a need to induct officers from outside, the procedures available should be used rather than induct those who had once spurned the IFS. The expectations of advancement in the IFS should not be belied.

The MEA has already begun to recruit more officers every year, and that is the only way that such a specialised service should be expanded. If necessary, there are retired officers with proven ability, to fill the gaps without claiming high positions and salaries.

Reforms needed

The suggestion here is not that reform of the diplomatic service is unnecessary. First, it should be made more attractive so that the best candidates are chosen. Like Jawaharlal Nehru did, the aptitude and readiness of the selected candidates should be ascertained before they are chosen. It is patently wrong to take in officers who qualify without English proficiency. No amount of language training after entry into the service would equip them for the rigours of the work abroad. The recruitment of a large number of doctors and engineers is by no means negative, particularly in the context of the growth of technology. Some of India’s best diplomats have come from the medical profession. But we should not lose sight of the recent trend in management to deploy more graduates of social sciences and humanities. Training should be constantly revamped to equip officers to deal with different regions.

The present practice of posting on an ad hoc basis should cease. Officers should develop expertise in countries and regions. Multilateral postings should not be meant for rotational blessings, but for those who have the talent and experience. Instead of rotating officers so that they retire comfortably, we should give them other incentives to stay in tough assignments. Those in difficult places must be compensated financially. Postings, an art at present, should be made a science, with a clear criteria. There should be no vagaries of political influence or acceptability.

The real shortage of officers is not in missions abroad, but at the headquarters. Many heads of divisions cover whole continents with very little support. Temporary deputation of officers from various disciplines can strengthen the headquarters till we have a sufficient number of IFS officers to return. The style of the present Prime Minister seems to be to rely on a small number of people to work intensively on issues; this method could be developed into a system.

The role and relevance of the policy planning and historical divisions are often exaggerated. Policy planning cannot be done in a vacuum; it is the territorial divisions which can help formulate policy. The historical division should be a service unit, helping policymakers, as it is functioning right now. Nothing prevents the Ministry from drawing on the experience and wisdom of people from other fields, without absorbing them into the Ministry.

Many youngsters who aspire to the IFS have begun to believe that it really does not call the shots in foreign policymaking, as decision-making has passed on to the technical Ministries. They believe that the MEA has been reduced to a post office. Unless this impression is removed by concrete action, real talent cannot be attracted to the Videsh Bhawan. Foreign services are elitist in most countries, and India should not fritter away its strengths by diluting its specialised and professional character.