Shivshankar Menon

NEW DELHI: The Government is examining the possibility of "more than doubling" the size of the External Affairs Ministry over the next five years, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon has told a Parliamentary panel. At present, the Ministry's strength is 4,746.

Mr. Menon informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs that a decision had also been reached, in principle, to increase the size of the Indian Foreign Service, which currently numbers less than 700 people.

Strength down

He pointed out that for every Indian diplomat, there were four Brazilian and seven Chinese diplomats. In the last 10 years, the strength of the Ministry had actually come down from 4,866 to 4,746.

Giving evidence before the panel, the Foreign Secretary stated, "Now, we might be wonderful and very efficient, but we are not that efficient or that good. I mean, it [the Ministry's strength] is a real problem. But we have a decision in principle, by the Government at the highest level that we will increase the size of our cadre... "

Mr. Menon argued that the Ministry's work had grown manifold in the last 10 years. "Our foreign trade has grown seven times in the last 10 years, passports issued have doubled to 44 lakhs last year and visas granted have tripled to over 57 lakhs."

Visits by heads of State/Government in the last 10 years had increased by about 165 per cent. "India has joined 13 new multilateral organisation[s] or groupings in this period. To cope with this increased workload ... our budget has tripled in these 10 years. But the number of personnel has actually shrunk... I must speak frankly that the strain is telling on us."

According to the Foreign Secretary, the expansion of the Ministry would have to be phased and organised and include more than just increasing the size of the Foreign Service.

"It would also mean, looking at how we can organise our work slightly differently, use the capacities that exist outside in society very simply. For instance, when the Ministry was set up, protocol had to do everything that the hospitality industry in India now can do... and we can concentrate on our primary functions," he stated.

Mr. Menon added that the Finance Ministry had sanctioned 220 additional posts for the consular and visa wings of missions, especially those in the Persian Gulf.

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