Indian diplomacy needs envoys with a wider pool of experience and talent than the IFS can summon

India has been here before. The early Republic drew on eminence when the task demanded it—think of S. Radhakrishnan, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, K.M. Panikkar, V.K. Krishna Menon, M.C. Chagla, Nani Palkhivala, Karan Singh and I.K. Gujral—while treating the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) as the system’s spine rather than its ceiling.