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India's Diplomatic Corps Needs Domain Experts, Authors Argue
A former minister's appointment as envoy to Bangladesh tests whether India will pick diplomats for capability or career track. The authors argue the gap between ambition and domain expertise matters for trade deals.
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India appointed a former union minister, Dinesh Trivedi, as High Commissioner to Bangladesh in April. It was the first political appointment of its kind under Narendra Modi's government. The move opens a long-standing question: should an ambassadorship remain the culmination of a single-career track, or should India choose every envoy for the capability each mission demands?
Two authors, corporate advisor Srinath and Supreme Court lawyer Vivek Rao, argue in a Mint article that the country's diplomatic corps lacks the depth of expertise needed for modern negotiations. "Consequential talks today run through semiconductor supply chains, export-control carve-outs, data flows, defence co-production, investment screening and technology standards," they wrote. The envoy who answers these counterparts, they said, must be prepared to combine politics, finance and world affairs in the same breath.
The authors acknowledged that the Indian Foreign Service should remain the backbone of India's diplomatic architecture. Its institutional memory, negotiating craft and relationships built over decades are assets the country cannot casually discard, they wrote. Yet a spine alone cannot be the entire skeleton. Some missions demand a career diplomat's decades of relationships. Others need political access no bureaucratic authority can replicate. Many require deep expertise in technology, trade, finance or defence.
India's commerce ministry already expects missions to deliver export promotion and market intelligence. The ministry also wants removal of non-tariff barriers. Niti Aayog wants structured technology-services trade missions to Japan, Germany and the Gulf. The economy-technology-defence triangle, the authors argued, is no longer a single theatre of diplomacy but the whole map.
A tariff line in Brussels affects a factory in Coimbatore. A technology annex in Tokyo impacts a fab in Gujarat. A co-production clause in Washington determines a squadron that flies. A data arrangement with Singapore shapes how an Indian technology company scales. For investors, the diplomatic capability to negotiate these details directly affects operational risk for companies operating in India.