The visit by Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin to New Delhi last week rounded off the series of high-level consultations on the substantive issues of cooperation that are expected to figure at the summit. A week earlier, Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov had visited Delhi to discuss the finalisation of multi-billion dollar worth new contracts for purchase of Russian weaponry by India.

NEW DELHI: Cultural ties between India and Russia have got a boost with the signing of a protocol between both the countries for a festival to be held Oct 24- Nov 4 in New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai.

The Ethiopian Embassy in India has announced that it is to launch a Cultural and Tourism Center to introduce African culture to Indians in November 2012. It is expected that center is to be the first of its kind in India. The center is to be an indispensable element to promoting African values and Ethiopian culture in particular according to Metasebia Tadesse, Counselor for Political, Public Relations, Public Diplomacy.

Marielle van Miltenburg, Head of Political Affairs and Public Diplomacy, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands said, “We are happy to establish collaboration between Dutch and Indian fashion via the Dutch Fashion Here & Now India program... A much-awaited event hosted by Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), the apex body of fashion designers in the country, provides an outstanding platform for information exchange and trend preview for the forthcoming season.

Following the recent declassification of 70,000 files, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is in the process of "finalizing a major project to declassify another set of 220000 files- records covering: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Iran and Sri Lanka, East Asia, Eurasia and the Americas.

Cultural and linguistic boundaries blurred as Rabindranath Tagore's poetry was set to a dance and Hungarian poetry composed by national icons like Endre Ady was recited in Hindi and in Hungarian. All this when 15 poets and writers from the two countries assembled here under the "Poetry Across Cultures" to read and exchange over musings of love, cadence and friendship.

INDIAFRICA, a shared future which was launched in Nigeria in August 2011 at Lagos Business School is "a unique people to people and youth outreach programme that brings Africans and Indians together through competition, creative exchanges and collaboration". The finals which held last September at the City Hall, Lagos, featured presentations by 9 teams from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and India.

The landmark films of Indian cinema that have enthralled generations of viewers over the past century will now travel across the world. As part of the Indian film industry's centennial celebrations, the government has envisaged an ambitious strategy to showcase the country's cinematic legacy by organising film festivals in major cities the world over.