The Hindu Business Line : Justified additions

According to recent media reports (see, for instance, the Hindu of April 29), the Foreign Secretary informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs that the Government was considering the possibility of more than doubling the strength of the Ministry.

The Ministry's current strength is 4746, down from 4866 a decade ago. The Committee was also told that a decision had been reached, in principle, to increase the size of the Indian Foreign Service, now less than 700 people.

The proposed expansion in staff strength is amply justified when one takes account of the phenomenal expansion in several of the key parameters, as noted by the Foreign Secretary. First, in the last 10 years, India's foreign trade grew by seven times and visits by heads of State/Government increased by about 165 per cent. Second, in just last year alone, 4.4 million passports were issued and 5.7 million visas granted. Third, while the MEA budget tripled in the past 10 years, staff strength in aggregate declines as noted earlier.

A key statistic quoted in the press refers to Brazil and China having more diplomats compared to India, at 4 to 1 and 7 to 1 respectively. Let us compare the demographically comparable India and China. Based on the World Bank's World Development Indicators, the 2004 data on tourist inflow, exports and foreign direct investment have the following relativities.

With India's 2.7 million tourist arrivals in 2004 as the base, China's inflow was 15.5 times. China's exports were 7.9 times the Indian level of $ 83 billion. Similarly, foreign direct investment inflow in 2004 for India was $5.3 billion, while China's was 10.4 times more. These ratios when compared to the 1:7 for the number of diplomats point to the need to increase our strength to pursue serious economic diplomacy and gain even more in terms of tourism, trade and foreign investment.

The Annual Report of MEA for 2005-06 at many places alludes to the achievements in international and bilateral economic cooperation as well as accomplishments in trade and investment promotion. Perhaps the time is now to inject the economic objectives of our foreign relations explicitly into "the fundamental tenets" which the Annual Report says have retained their "essential validity" and describes them as "autonomy in decision making, the commitment to the Panch Sheel... friendly and cooperative relations with all countries, resolution of conflicts... and equity in the conduct of international economic relations."

(The author is Professor Emeritus, GITAM Institute of Foreign Trade, Visakhapatnam and Visiting Faculty, Sri Sathya Sai University, Prasanthi Nilayam. He can be reached at bhanoji@gmail.com)

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