My suggestions for revamp of Indian diplomacy:
Honorable Prime Minister of India,
I am a graduate from Cornell University in Public Administration. In my 2 years of stay in the international diplomatic environment, I have realized that the world community suffers from lot of misconceptions about our foreign policy and our nation. The only way to address this issue is to make institutional changes in our foreign policy and diplomatic machinery. Here, I founded International Affairs Forum to promote soft power in diplomacy. I have realized that 21st century belongs to economic diplomacy and soft power. I am sending you few suggestions for making things better in our foreign policy.

1) The selection system must be changed. 1/4th of the diplomats can be selected through lateral entry system. Many bright Indian students are studying in Harvard, Fletcher school of diplomacy, Georgetown and many other such good universities. They can be asked to send their CVs and cover letter and then selected on the basis of personal or skype interview. Then they can be sent for 6 months orientation course in which they must be trained in Indian constitution, history, culture and diplomatic traditions. Having done that they can be sent for field assignments. Their performance must be reviewed after every 3 years and then a decision taken on retaining them or asking them to leave.

2) 1/4th of the candidates can be selected from the existing government officials in other central services, police services, state civil services, armed forces, private sector and non profit sector. They also should go through an orientation course and sent to field postings.

3) 50 % should be selected though regular competitive exam conducted by UPSC. Their tenure and the tenure of existing diplomats must be reviewed after every 3 to 5 years and then a decision taken on retaining them or not.

4) The ambassadors should be appointed from diverse areas like business, private sector, non profit sector, academicians and politicians. The nations where business interests are to be promoted can have envoys like Mr. Narayan Murthy etc.

5) we need to increase the number of diplomats to at least 4 to 5000.

6) We should get specialists in public diplomacy, soft power and water diplomacy and climate change.

7) All the processes of visa and passport must be made online. The fee must be accepted by credit card or checks and cash system should be abolished.

8) We must have a soft power secretariat to promote India's soft power across the world. For this the embassies must reach out to universities and academic and cultural institutions.

9) We must have a development secretariat in foreign ministry as now the major part of diplomacy is aids for development, poverty reduction, education etc in conflict areas. We should hire diplomats who are trained in international development studies.

10) India can take lead in reviving SAARC. To begin with, India can form SAARC Peace and Reconstruction Forces, with staff and corps recruited from all SAARC nations. They can, to begin with be posted in Afghanistan. They will engage in development work and train the local security forces. The development professionals can be recruited from our educational institutions like IIM, IRMA(Anand), JNU, Delhi university and other universities. Later, for youth a permanent SAARC peace volunteer corps can be formed. The dedicated band of youngsters will engage in fighting poverty, diseases, inequality in all SAARC nations and other conflict areas.

I have many other suggestions which I can send you on your personal email if you and the foreign ministry are interested. I can be contacted at ap749@cornell.edu.
Jaihind Jai Bharat
with warm regards,