Why are we still stuck with this bureaucratic mindset? The Indian Embassy and its system is a direct reflection of the inefficiencies in the Indian Administrative Services. Just transplanted on a foreign land.
Over the last 30 years of my life when dealing with the consulate whether applying for passport renewals, PIO, OCI, always comes with a pang of anxiety. Always starts with the thoughts of - has the process improved since the last time, will I have to embark on an arts/crafts project to fill out this application, will the website(s) accept my form, will the instructions be clear.
The application submission website seems to be written by the foreign ministers nephew, who got a degree in Computer Science, actually no, does “business” in “computers”, and “won” the government contract to build and host it.
Then of course some other minister had to make money as well, so another company called VFS was founded and given the contract to make the process “easier”. FedEx lobbied and got a cut to make labels - sure there is a minister getting a cut there too.
No customer service, pay for the call if you need help(brilliant idea) on your mind-boggling process and system.
Proud to be Indian, but not proud of our system/corruption. Even withe advent of AI, where these systems can be overhauled/outdated we will stick with them, the minister’s nephew, brother will just make a bigger margin, for less developers, but we as Indians will pay and not have any say, because the bureaucracy has stifled the democracy.