New Delhi, Aug. 12 -- Diplomacy now demands a fusion no bureaucracy can supply: political conviction that carries a mandate, domain expertise that can smell the true cost of a concession and world experience that commands a room.

The counterpart across the table today is a trade negotiator, defence planner, tech entrepreneur, sovereign fund, central banker or head of government. The envoy who answers them must be prepared to roll politics, finance and world affairs into the same breath.

In April, India's government appointed former Union minister Dinesh Trivedi as High Commissioner to Bangladesh, the first political appointment of its kind under the Narendra Modi government.

The significance lies less in the individual than in the ques...