Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Life in the Indian Foreign Service

Please note: Readers' comments are not visible under the comments section of this post due to number of comments exceeding the limit of 200. Your queries will remain unanswered if you post it under this article. 

Please direct all your queries to  http://www.abhayk.com/2014/01/life-in-indian-foreign-service.html


Life in the Indian Foreign Service
-Abhay K.



Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is unlike any other Civil Service such as Indian Administrative Service (IAS) or Indian Police Service (IPS). An Indian Foreign Service officer spends most of his/her time abroad ( two-third of his/her career) and only one third of career in India at the headquarters of the Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) in New Delhi.

After joining the Indian Foreign Service, for which one has to be generally at the top of the ranking order in Civil Services Examination (CSE) conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) of India, one is sent to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussorie for training for a period of three months where he/she is known as Foreign Service Probationer/ Officer Trainee. 

After completing the three months training, which involves training in multiple disciplines including a foreign language, horse riding and trekking in high Himalayas, a Foreign Service Probationer moves to the Foreign Service Institute located in New Delhi for further training.

At the Foreign Service Institute, which is located on Baba Gangnath Marg near Jawaharlal University (JNU) campus, a Foreign Service Probationer undergoes training for a year which involves International Relations, Indian Foreign Service Pay, Leave and Compensatory Allowances (IFS-PLCA) Rules, Foreign Trade, functioning of Indian missions in neighbouring South Asian countries, attachments with the Army, Navy and the Air Force, attachment with the district and the state administration and attachment with the corporate sector. 


Sunday, May 12, 2013

The Dance of the Peacock: An Anthology of English Poetry from India


The Dance of the Peacock
An Anthology of English Poetry from India
(To be published by Hidden Brook Press, Canada)

Some Poets
A.J. Thomas
Abhay K.
Bibhu Padhi
Jayanata Mahapatra
Keki N. Daruwala
K. Satchidanandan
Menka Shivdasani
R. Raja Rao
Ravi Shankar
Vivek Narayanan



Sunday, May 5, 2013

Conversations between Prof. Abhi Subedi and Dr. Sanjeev Uprety


Indian Foreign Service: Positives & Negatives

The Indian Foreign Serivce (IFS) is the most selective and exclusive of all the Civil Services in India, taking in less than 40 candidates each year. Trainees have to undergo three years of training before serving in
Indian missions abroad and in the Ministry of External Affairs. The service was set up in September 1946 and the first batch of officers recruited through the Civil Services examination of the UPSC joined the service in 1948.

Abhay K. (IFS 2003) shares his own views on positives and  negatives of the Indian Foreign Service along with career highlights, family expectations and his advice for those preparing for the IFS in his 2012 interview to MYOD along with the former foreign secretary Salman Haider










"I LOVE MY JOB"- Abhay K.