Chapter 2 - Indian Foreign Service (IFS) | A Bouquet of Services by IPS Lohit Matani and IPS Vishal - UPSC PDF Download

2.4 Recruitment

The recruitment into IFS happens through two channels:

1. People are inducted into IFS after qualifying in the Civil Services Exam conducted by UPSC.
2. The Group B Foreign Service Officers (Assistant Section Officers) are promoted to the IFS grade after a minimum of 14-16 years of service. Ratio 50:50.

2.5 Training

The training structure of the IFS is divided in to the phases as mentioned below.

At the conclusion of the basic training program, the officer is assigned his/her compulsory foreign language (CFL). After a brief period of desk attachment in the Ministry of External Affairs the officer is posted to an Indian Mission abroad in a country where his CFL is the native language and enrolled in a language course.

Apart from the above, Mid-Career Training Program (MCTP)-1 is conducted for IFS officers who are being considered for promotion to Deputy Secretary. This training helps officers to visualize issues in totality, seeing the linkages and interconnections across organizations. It facilitates the transition of officers from Analyst to Integrator, Tactician to Strategist, Bricklayer to Architect, Problem Solver to Agenda Setter and Supporting Cast Member to Lead Roles. Similarly, Mid-Career Training Program (MCTP)-2 accelerates the transition of an officer from functional specialist to strategic leader. It addresses the core needs of catching up with emerging foreign policy issues by providing some domain specialization, exposure to domestic issues of relevance and modern management tools for developing leadership skills. In a similar manner, MCTP-3 is conducted for officers at Joint Secretary Level, imparting them skills in certain special domains.

2.6 Variety of Opportunities for IFS Officers

Apart from the cadre posts, officers of IFS also serve in the following organizations:

2.7 Perks, Privileges and Advantages for IFS Officers

IFS Officers enjoy the following advantages w.r.t to the other services:

1. IFS officers get global exposure about the good practices in various countries. Thus they develop an understanding of best practices in different fields like technology, agriculture, and so on.
2. The pay and perks in IFS are better than other services when officers are posted in a foreign country. The foreign allowance given to them is according to the UN Cost of Living Index of the country in which the officers are posted.
3. Officers develop a bird’s eye view of all the important fields of governance. From the very beginning they are trained to develop a holistic understanding of different aspects.
4. It is a sense of great privilege that the IFS officers act as representative of India in other countries. Under this capacity they gain in-depth knowledge of different aspects of India like culture, economy, polity and society.
5. The work profile of IFS officers is one of lifelong learning. Once they are posted in a new country, they are supposed to learn about their culture, their way of thinking, they polity, economy and society. Based on this understanding, they are supposed to promote India’s interests in the interests of that foreign country.
6. IFS officers develop expertise in certain foreign languages.
7. The most prominent skill acquired by an IFS officer is that of persuasion. They are not supposed to get their work done because of having power over others (like in All India Services) but because of their superior persuasion skills.
8. IFS officers develop a good network with important and high profile people in various fields across the globe.
9. This service is indispensable for India in the fast changing globalizing yet fragmenting and often confusing world of ours.
10. The children of IFS officers get an opportunity to study in dedicated international schools in various countries. This helps them in adjusting to the education system of various countries.

2.8 Occupational Hazards

IFS officers have to face difficulties at the family level as they have to periodically change their country of posting. Adjusting in a completely different country in a short span is not an easy task. As explained earlier, this service does not enjoy power over general public. In normal course of work, interaction with general public is much less. Although IFS officers develop a bird’s eye view of the happenings in India, but sometimes they drive away from the ground realities of our country. This happens because they don’t get many opportunities to directly know the real ground level situation in various parts of India.

2.9. Case Studies indicating the work life, challenges and dilemma faced by an IFS Officer

2.9.1 Operation Rahat

The importance of Indian Foreign Service is reflected in operations like Operation Rahat, in which the service played an important role in the evacuation of Indian citizens and other foreign nationals from Yemen during the 2015 military intervention by Saudi Arabia and its allies in that country during the Yemeni crisis.

IFS officers posted in Yemen understood the ground situation and informed the Ministry of External Affairs to issue an advisory to Indian expatriates in Yemen to leave the country. Further seeing an imminent attack by Arab coalition, officers advised Indians in Yemen to urgently evacuate the country. However, more than 5000 Indians were still trapped in the country.

For them, the Operation Rahat was launched. The international goodwill maintained by India made the task of IFS officers easy in this operation. They persuaded both the sides at war to let Indians leave peacefully from the war torn country. Officers were actively involved in contacting the trapped Indians and arranging for their travel to the Embassy. Groups of Indians were then transferred to a base setup in Djibouti. Ambassador of India to Ethiopia helped in setting up this camp in Djibouti where the aggrieved Indians could stay for few days before they depart to India. He also arranged for their basic living facilities there.

In this transit camp, various local agencies along with the Government helped the Ambassador in providing a decent living to the Indians. However, there were certain ethical issues involved in this work, like every Indian was not provided similar level of facilities. People nearer to the authorities and having certain amount of money were given better facilities. There was also a lot of discretion with the authorities in spending the money in their hand in carrying out the task of evacuation. Many of the local agencies also increased the cost of their services during the evacuation process.

Q.  Analyze and discuss the above and other ethical issues involved in such an  operation. How would you overcome these issues? Please describe your strategy.

2.9.2 Diplomatic Immunity Enjoyed by IFS Officers

Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations provides a set of diplomatic immunities to IFS officers. These help the diplomats to perform their function without fear of coercion or harassment by the host country. According to them, a diplomat must never be arrested or detained. They are immune from civil or criminal prosecution. They are also exempt from most taxes.

However, the above diplomatic immunity is subjected to some form of misuse also. Ms X was posted as a junior diplomat representing India in United States. Taking advantage of criminal immunity, she clandestinely took two passports for her children, one of India and other of US. India does not allow dual citizenship (an Indian citizen cannot be a citizen of another country at the same time). She also blatantly misused diplomatic immunity in petty ways like parking her vehicle in no parking area, flouting traffic rules, and so on.

The excess of misuse committed by her was unearthed when her maid accused her of paying less wage and economic exploitation. IFS officers are allowed to carry an Indian domestic help with them. Some amount of the money to be paid to domestic help is borne by the Indian Government and the rest is borne by the officer himself/ herself. The money paid to the domestic help should be more than the minimum wage paid in the host country. However, Ms X used to pay less amount of money to her domestic help. The domestic helps who travel with career diplomats feel depressed in a foreign nation as they get cut-off from their family and do not develop many contacts among foreigners. Many of them even develop suicidal tendencies among them.

However, some domestic helps also resort to false allegations on their diplomatic masters. This helps them gain the sympathy of foreign authorities and subsequently work and citizenship in the foreign nation. It serves for them as method to evade poverty, the kind of they witness in India.

Q. On the basis of above case study, examine the ethical issues an IFS officer faces while enjoying the diplomatic immunity provided to them under Vienna Convention. What are the triggers that make some of the IFS officers to misuse the provisions of diplomatic immunity? Secondly, examine the challenges a domestic help faces while serving their diplomat masters in a foreign country. What motivates them to act in an unethical manner and falsely accuse their diplomatic masters?

Imagine yourself both in the position of Ms X and a domestic help. How will you protect yourself from acting unethically and prevent the misuse of powers given to you? Secondly, how will you prevent your juniors to not misuse the provisions of diplomatic immunity?

2.9.3 123 Indo-US Nuclear Deal

Indian Foreign Service played an important role in preparing the ground work for clinching the 123 Indo-US Nuclear Deal.  India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and to place all its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and, in exchange, the United States agreed to work towards full civil nuclear cooperation with India. 

The deal is seen as a watershed in U.S.-India relations and introduced a new aspect to international nonproliferation efforts. On August 1, 2008, the IAEA approved the safeguards agreement with India, after which the United States approached the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to grant a waiver to India to commence civilian nuclear trade. The 48-nation NSG granted the waiver to India on September 6, 2008 allowing it to access civilian nuclear technology and fuel from other countries. The implementation of this waiver made India the only known country with nuclear weapons which is not a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) but is still allowed to carry out nuclear commerce with the rest of the world.

Clinching this deal was a herculean task considering the global apathy and imposition of economic sanctions on India following the nuclear test conducted by India in 1998. India also refused to be a part of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The nuclear stand taken by India was important as we had sufficient intelligence that Pakistan was clandestinely developing nuclear weapons. As India lies at a very sensitive position in South Asia, she is an important player to maintain peace in the region. Diplomats posted in US as well as in Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) utilized their persuasion skills to the maximum to convince US that India is a peace loving country, and the nuclear stand taken by India is only to maintain a balance of power in South Asia. They projected India as a responsible power by showing her history in nuclear weapons. They showed that India has always restrained from the use of dangerous weapons. They also projected the constraining situation of India in not being able to become a member of NPT.

However, such moral appeals were not enough in getting US to our side. It was realpolitik also which played a major role. We showed US how the trade and business interests of US are benefitted in a strategic partnership with India. We relaxed certain sectors like retail and defense for foreign investment. We also invited many American nuclear companies to invest in India. Subtly appealing to the US need of balancing China in Asia also helped to gain US support. The deal clinched by us had certain trade-offs also. Opening of nascent markets for foreign investment may lead to suppression of growth of domestic industries in these markets. For example, high inflow of foreign electronics in India has suppressed the growth of Indian electronics industry after the signing of Information Technology Agreement.

Question: On the basis of the above case, examine the challenges a diplomat faces while preparing the ground for such path breaking deals. Being a diplomat, how will you ensure maximum interest for India while negotiating such deals? What are the ethical dilemmas in the above situation? What strategy will you adopt to overcome them?