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The Union Cabinet finally gave the green signal to the expansion of the foreign ministry on Thursday, August 21, after a long wait. The Indian government announced after a meeting of the cabinet that 139 more posts will be created at the officers level and another 110 posts will be created for the support staff.
A serious crunch of staff in the foreign ministry had been posing as barrier in its smooth functioning in the recent past. Before the standing committee of the Parliament in 2007, foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon had even pointed out that for every Indian diplomat there were four Brazilian diplomats and seven Chinese diplomats.
Menon went on to underscore that the strain was telling on the officials. It was Information and Broadcasting Minister, PR Das Munshi, who voiced this Cabinet decision after the meeting presided by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. The I&B Minister said that this would strengthen
