The Officer Trainees of the 2024 Batch of Indian Foreign Service (IFS) called on Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi at his residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg earlier today. There are 33 IFS Officer Trainees in the 2024 batch from different States and UTs.

Prime Minister discussed the current multipolar world and India’s unique role as a Vishwabandhu, ensuring friendship with everyone. He cited instances of how India has emerged as a first responder for countries in need. He also underlined the capacity building efforts and other endeavours undertaken by India to lend a helping hand to the Global South. Prime Minister discussed the evolving sphere of foreign policy and it’s significance in the global fora. He spoke about the key role that the diplomats are playing in the evolution of the country as a Vishwanandhu on the global stage. He underscored the significance of the Officer Trainees in their role as future diplomats as the country moves ahead towards the aim of becoming developed by 2047.

Prime Minister engaged in a wide-ranging interaction with the Officer Trainees and asked them about their experience so far, after joining the government service. The officer trainees shared their experiences from their training and research tasks undertaken by them, which included topics such as Maritime diplomacy, AI & Semiconductor, Ayurveda, Cultural connect, Food and Soft Power, among others.

Prime Minister said that we must create curiosity amongst youngsters in various countries about India with Know Your Bharat quizzes and debates. He also said that questions of these quizzes should be regularly updated and include contemporary topics from India such as Mahakumbh, Celebration of completion of 1000 years of Gangaikonda Cholapuram Temple and so on.

Prime Minister emphasised on the important role of communication in a technology driven world. He urged the officer trainees to work on exploring all the websites of the Missions and try to find out what can be done to improve these websites for effective communication with the Indian diaspora.

Discussing the opening up of the space sector for private players, PM emphasized on exploring opportunities in other countries for expanding the scope of Indian startups coming up in this sector. PM said that India has the potential to fill this space in the space sector.

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MJPS/ST