The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It is the diplomatic service and a central civil service of the Government of India under the Ministry of External Affairs. The Foreign Secretary is the head of the service. Vinay Mohan Kwatra is the 34th and the current Foreign Secretary.
Indian Foreign Service
South Block The HQ of Ministry of External Affairs, Prime Minister's Office and Defence Ministry in New Delhi
The U.S. President Barack Obama and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with their diplomats in an expanded bilateral meeting at Hyderabad House, New Delhi, 2015.
Nirupama Rao, the then Indian Ambassador to the U.S., in a meeting with Hillary Clinton, the then U.S. Secretary of State, in Washington, D.C., 2012
In India, the Civil Service is the collection of civil servants of the government who constitute the permanent executive branch of the country. This includes servants in the All India Services, the Central Civil Services, and various State Civil Services, who are recruited by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), and each state's Public Service Commissions.
Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Valedictory Session of the Civil Services Day event
Image: Manmohan Singh at the inauguration of the Civil Services Day, 2013, in New Delhi. The Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and Prime Minister’s Office, Shri V. Narayanasamy