The Narendra Modi government has slashed foreign tours of senior officials to five days from the earlier 15. The government has circulated a notice, a copy of which is available with Rediff.com, to all secretaries to the government of India.

A 25-point action plan on foreign visits of senior officials has now been issued by the Department of Expenditure with the consent of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and also the Prime Minister's Office.  One of these points say that no officer can also undertake more than four official foreign visits in a year. While, another rule says that secretaries cannot undertake foreign visits while the Parliament is in session unless unavoidable.

This change has been introduced by the BJP government to ensure that officials above the designation of Deputy Secretary to the Government of India do not spend working days away from India and undertake frequent foreign tours.

Prime Minister Modi, meanwhile, has notched up 33 foreign tours since he took over the reins of government in May 2014.

Read the complete list of do's and don'ts for foreign travel.