BANGALORE: In a move to strengthen economic diplomacy across the globe, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) is looking to depute experts from various trade and industry bodies into the Indian Foreign Service cadre for short periods.
Speaking at an event organized by local industry body Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce Industry (FKCCI) on Tuesday, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid said, “We are looking at innovative methods to depute people in to the foreign service. Hopefully, we would have more people coming from industry join us for a few years, spend one or two postings abroad and then return to their permanent jobs.”
He said the MEA was undergoing change because of new expectations from the Indian diplomat.
Pinak Ranjan Chakraborty, secretary, public diplomacy, said the MEA was looking to use the expertise of people from industry for trade and economic issues. “They will be part of our economic diplomacy,” said Chakraborty.
However, there are issues to be sorted out. “How much do we pay them, what level should we peg them at, because bureaucracy is a hierarchy,” said Chakraborty.
The Indian MEA is said to have one of the smallest cadres, smaller than even in countries such as Singapore and Chile. In 2008, the Union cabinet had given its nod to double the MEA cadre base to 1,200 by 2018. At present it is between 700 and 800, with the ministry having taken in 35 young people who cleared their UPSC exams this year.
The external affairs minister, who was on a two-day visit to Bangalore, engaged in some public diplomacy, meeting with CEOs, trade bodies, representatives of civil society, and law students. The concept of public diplomacy was launched by the MEA in 2006, the idea being to take foreign policy outside the environs of a closed group.
“Our Constitution gives external affairs to the central government and states don’t have a role to play. But we think states do have a role and public diplomacy is part of the process to build stakeholders within states and broaden the catchment area of our foreign policy,” said Chakraborty.
Khurshid said the MEA couldn’t have made “a more effective intervention of outreach than here (in Bangalore) because of the significance of opinion makers and people who are right at the front line of what India means to the world today.”
Salman Khurshid on H-1B visa
“We are no pushovers. We have to be accommodative of the concerns of other economies. We can’t look at the USA as though only what we want should be done and not necessarily accommodate what USA wants to be done. When I spoke to Secretary (John) Kerry and told him that we were concerned about the issue of H-1B visas, he told me we wasn’t aware that the situation was as critical as it sounded when we put it across to him. But he did tell me that he was prepared to go and speak to the Senate and House of Representatives for us, and added that we have to give him something as well. They have concerns about IPR (intellectual property rights), concerns about compulsory licensing, and concerns about the time we were taking on the 123 (civil nuclear) agreement and its commercialization.”
External affairs ministry mulls business heads in foreign service cadre for ...
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