Against 20,000 American diplomats and 4500 Chinese and 5,700 Japanese envoys, India has just 912 foreign service officers. Aspiring for a major role in global affairs and to rub shoulders with super powers, India lacks both numbers and quality of its diplomatic staff. The panel has also highlighted the deterioration in the quality of recruits to the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), even when the lure and appeal of the civil services has increased. But the panel described the plan inadequate to bridge the critical gap between the diplomatic requirements and available manpower. "This development is both a symptom and a reason for the erosion of prestige in the IFS," the parliamentary panel said.

Source: dna August 03, 2016 02:26 UTC