Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underscores ‘cooperation’ and ‘competition’ as the elements defining the Sino-Indian relationship. But for the present, competition is the buzzword. Seasoned diplomats admit to the lack of common and contemporary cultural elements besides Bollywood that can project soft power across the militarised borders.

"Six years ago, the two countries had decided to sign an MoU with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, but it was stuck for cultural exchange. But we want to carry the MoU forward to promote people-to-people contact. Every Pakistani heart is open... India should also open the door of its heart to Pakistani art and culture," Nasir said.

...the apology was a masterpiece in diplomatic engagement and crisis management in public diplomacy, from which India’s public diplomacy division in the capital’s Shastri Bhavan could learn. The US embassy did not simply issue a press release and leave its use to availability of space in the media and the discretion of news editors. At very short notice, the mission called the media to the embassy...

Over the last couple of years, India has been seen stamping its presence in the league of global leaders by the strength of its economic power.

Sherman’s announcement is a huge ‘PR scoop’ for the US public diplomacy. The fact that she went public at an elite gathering of Indian strategic gurus underscores that Washington sought the optimal spin-off in the realm of US-India relationship, which has been lately somewhat under the weather.

I am...guilty for having introduced the idea of the importance of India’s “soft power” into the public discourse of our country... My rationale for applying the American academic Joseph Nye’s ideas to India... lay in my conviction that India’s biggest asset in the world was not merely our rising power...

On the whole, foreign investors find India an excellent investment opportunity that relates to the arena of “needs and wants” marketing, as opposed to “desires and aspirations” marketing. For the latter, China is an excellent destination, and not India.

A need to engage with industry on an equal plane while Indian industry, too, stops crawling when asked to walk....If we don’t get any of the above done, GDP growth notwithstanding, the reputational damage we would have caused Brand India will be immeasurable. So someone needs to wake up and pretty soon at that.