'India need more foreign officials'

Citing that India is in need of a robust foreign policy with a focus on the world of the 21st century, former diplomat-turned politician Shashi Tharoor has said the country requires more foreign services officials to play the role of a global leader.

Tharoor, 56, who launched his new book 'Pax Indica: India and the world of the 21st century' here last night, said India was now being changed to a rulemaker from ruletaker and could play a global role promoting an overall set of rules of the road.

He said that while India has come a long way after opening up its economy since 1991, but it still needs to work on several aspects including on its severely understaffed and underfunded Ministry of External Affairs.

He said India needed a robust foreign policy with a focus on the world of the 21st century.

"Given the state of aspirations of Indian foreign policy in the globalised world, there are ministries grossly understaffed and under resourced," Tharoor said.

"There is a need to expand that dramatically, hire more experts like climate experts," he said.

He said for India with population of over 1.2 billion it had over 900 foerign services officials across the world which was even less than a smaller country like Brazil which has over 1200 and China which has around 4200 foreign service officials.

Launching and signing away the book for his readers at a packed event, Tharoor said that the 440-page book was dedicated to his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

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