Indian Foreign Service

Service Overview
Abbreviation Abbreviation An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...	I.F.S.
Formed Date of establishment The date of establishment or date of founding of an institution is the date on which that institution chooses to claim as its starting point...	9 October 1946
Country Country A country is a region legally identified as a distinct entity in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with a previously...	India
Training Ground	Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration The Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration is a research and training institute on public policy and public administration in India... , Mussoorie Mussoorie Mussoorie is a city and a municipal board in the Dehradun District of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is located about 35 km from the state capital of Dehradun and 290 km north from the national capital of New Delhi... Foreign Service Institute, New Delhi New Delhi New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
Controlling Authority	Ministry of External Affairs Ministry of External Affairs (India) The Ministry of External Affairs is the foreign ministry of India. It is the Indian government agency responsible for the foreign relations of India. The Minister of External Affairs holds cabinet rank as a member of the Council of Ministers. The current minister is S M Krishna...
Legal personality	Governmental: Government service
General nature	Diplomacy Peacemakers Foreign policy and relations Advisors to Ministers
Preceding service
Cadre Size
Service Chief
	Foreign Secretary Current: Ranjan Mathai Ranjan Mathai Ranjan Mathai is the current Indian Foreign Secretary. He assumed charge on August 1, 2011 with a two year term. Prior to this assignment, he served as the Indian Ambassador to France.-Early life:...
Head of the Civil Services
	Cabinet Secretary Cabinet Secretary (India) The head of executive officers of civil services of India is the Cabinet Secretary. The Cabinet Secretary is under the direct charge of the Prime Minister... Current: A.K. Seth

The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is the foreign service

Diplomatic service

Diplomatic service is the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country to communicate with the governments of other countries. Diplomatic personnel enjoy diplomatic immunity when they are accredited to other countries...

 of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It is the body of career diplomats

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

 of India.

The Indian Foreign Service is part of the Central Civil Services of the Government of India

Government of India

The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...

. The Foreign Secretary of India

Indian Foreign Secretary

An Indian Foreign Secretary is the top diplomat for Indian Foreign Relations, who is appointed in the Ministry of External Affairs Office. Foreign Secretaries are experienced IFS officers, who are ambassadors to foreign nations....

 is the administrative head of the Indian Foreign Service.

History

On 13 September 1783, the board of directors

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

 of the East India Company passed a resolution

Resolution (law)

A resolution is a written motion adopted by a deliberative body. The substance of the resolution can be anything that can normally be proposed as a motion. For long or important motions, though, it is often better to have them written out so that discussion is easier or so that it can be...

 at Fort William

Fort William, India

Fort William is a fort built in Calcutta on the Eastern banks of the River Hooghly, the major distributary of the River Ganges, during the early years of the Bengal Presidency of British India. It was named after King William III of England...

, Calcutta (now Kolkata), to create a department, which could help "relieve the pressure" on the Warren Hastings

Warren Hastings

Warren Hastings PC was the first Governor-General of India, from 1773 to 1785. He was famously accused of corruption in an impeachment in 1787, but was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1814.-Early life:...

 administration in conducting its "secret and political business." Although established by the Company, the Indian Foreign Department conducted business with foreign Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an powers. From the very beginning, a distinction was maintained between the foreign and political functions of the Foreign Department; relations with all "Asiatic powers" (including native princely state

Princely state

A Princely State was a nominally sovereign entitity of British rule in India that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule such as suzerainty or paramountcy.-British relationship with the Princely States:India under the British Raj ...

s) were treated as political, while relations with European powers were treated as foreign.

In 1843, the Governor-General of India

Governor-General of India

The Governor-General of India was the head of the British administration in India, and later, after Indian independence, the representative of the monarch and de facto head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William...

, Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough

Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough

Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough GCB, PC was a British Tory politician. He was four times President of the Board of Control and also served as Governor-General of India between 1842 and 1844.-Background and education:...

 carried out administrative reforms, organizing the Secretariat of the Government into four departments: Foreign, Home, Finance, and Military. Each was headed by a secretary-level officer. The Foreign Department Secretary was entrusted with the "conduct of all correspondence belonging to the external and internal diplomatic relations of the government."

The Government of India Act 1935

Government of India Act 1935

The Government of India Act 1935 was originally passed in August 1935 , and is said to have been the longest Act of Parliament ever enacted by that time. Because of its length, the Act was retroactively split by the Government of India Act 1935 into two separate Acts:# The Government of India...

 attempted to delineate more clearly functions of the foreign and political wings of the Foreign Department, it was soon realized that it was administratively imperative to completely bifurcate the department. Consequently, the External Affairs Department was set up separately under the direct charge of the Governor-General

The idea of establishing a separate diplomatic service to handle the external activities of the government of India originated from a note dated 30 September 1944, recorded by Lieutenant-General T. J. Hutton, the Secretary of the Planning and Development Department. When this note was referred to the Department of External Affairs for comments, Olaf Caroe

Olaf Caroe

Sir Olaf Kirkpatrick Kruuse Caroe KCSI KCIE was an administrator in British India. He later became a writer on the Middle East and Asia.-Life:...

, the Foreign Secretary, recorded his comments in an exhaustive note detailing the scope, composition and functions of the proposed service. Caroe pointed out that as India emerged as autonomous, it was imperative to build up a system of representation abroad that would be in complete harmony with the objectives of the future government.

On 9 October 1946, on the eve of Indian independence

Indian independence movement

The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

, the Indian government established the Indian Foreign Service for India's diplomatic

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

, consular

Consul (representative)

The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...

 and commercial representation overseas. With independence, there was a near-complete transition of the Foreign and Political Department into what then became the new Ministry of External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations

Ministry of External Affairs (India)

The Ministry of External Affairs is the foreign ministry of India. It is the Indian government agency responsible for the foreign relations of India. The Minister of External Affairs holds cabinet rank as a member of the Council of Ministers. The current minister is S M Krishna...

.

Selection

In 1948 the first group of Indian Foreign Service officers recruited under the combined Civil Services Examination

Civil Services Examination

The Civil Services Examination is a nationwide competitive examination in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment to the various Civil Services of the Government of India, including Indian Administrative Service , Indian Foreign Service , Indian Police Service and...

 administered by the Union Public Service Comission joined the service. This exam is still used to select new IFS officers.

The Civil Services Examination is used for recruitment for many Indian administrative bodies. It has three stages - a preliminary exam, a main exam, and an interview

Interview

An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...

 - and is known for being extremely challenging.

The entire selection process lasts for about 12 months. About 800 to 900 candidates are finally selected each year out of the nearly 400,000, but only a good rank guarantees an IFS selection— an acceptance rate of 0.01 percent.

In recent years, the intake into the Indian Foreign Service has averaged around 20 persons annually. The present cadre strength of the service stands at approximately 600 officers manning around 162 Indian missions and posts abroad and the various posts in the Ministry of External Affairs at home. The Times of India reported a shortage of Indian diplomats.

Training

On acceptance to the Foreign Service, new entrants undergo significant training. The entrants undergo a probationary period (and are referred to as probationers). Training begins at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration

Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration

The Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration is a research and training institute on public policy and public administration in India...

 in Mussoorie

Mussoorie

Mussoorie is a city and a municipal board in the Dehradun District of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is located about 35 km from the state capital of Dehradun and 290 km north from the national capital of New Delhi...

, where members of many elite Indian civil service organizations are trained.

After completing the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, the probationers join the Foreign Service Institute

Foreign Service Institute India

Foreign Service Institute India is the institute in New Delhi where Indian Foreign Service officers are trained. The Institute functions under the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. The Institute is headed by the Dean of the Foreign Service Institute, who is an officer of the...

 in New Delhi

New Delhi

New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...

 for more training as well as attachments with different government bodies and tours both in India and abroad. The entire training programme is for a period of 36 months.

At the conclusion of the training programme the officer is assigned a compulsory foreign language (CFL). After a brief period of desk attachment in the Ministry of External Affairs, the officer is posted to an Indian diplomatic mission abroad where the CFL is the native language. There the officer undergoes language training and is expected to develop proficiency in his CFL and pass an examination before being allowed to continue in the service.

Career and rank structure

• At an embassy
  Diplomatic mission
  A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organisation present in another state to represent the sending state/organisation in the receiving state...
  
  :
  • Third Secretary (entry level)
  • Second Secretary (promotion upon being confirmed in service)
  • First Secretary
  • Counsellor
  • Minister
    Minister (government)
    A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....
    
    
  • Deputy Chief of Mission/Deputy High Commissioner/Deputy Permanent Representative
  • Ambassador
    Ambassador
    An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
    
    /High Commissioner
    High Commissioner (Commonwealth)
    In the Commonwealth of Nations, a High Commissioner is the senior diplomat in charge of the diplomatic mission of one Commonwealth government to another.-History:...
    
    /Permanent Representative
    Permanent Representative
    A Permanent Representative is the head of a diplomatic mission to one of various international organisations. The best known of the organisations to which states send Permanent Representatives is the United Nations; of these, the most high-profile ones are those assigned to headquarters in New...
    
    

• At a consulate:
  • Vice Consul
    Vice Consul
    A vice consul is a subordinate officer, authorized to exercise consular functions in some particular part of a district controlled by a consulate....
    
    
  • Consul
    Consul (representative)
    The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
    
    
  • Consul General

• At the Ministry of External Affairs
  • Under Secretary
  • Deputy Secretary
  • Director
  • Joint Secretary
  • Additional Secretary
  • Secretary

External links

• Official website of Ministry of External Affairs of India
• Indian Foreign Service: Group A (Recruitment, Cadre, Seniority and Promotion), Rules, 1961
• Indian Foreign Service: Group B (Recruitment, Cadre, Seniority and Promotion), Rules, 1964
• Official website of Foreign Service Institute India
• Inside Indian Foreign Service