The success of India's first Formula One Grand Prix stands in striking contrast to last year's Commonwealth Games fiasco...the Buddh International Circuit won high praise from race-car drivers and international media alike...India's ability to attract such international praise exemplifies its growing soft power.

Advocating a more pragmatic approach, he wanted India to maintain cordial relations with the countries that would invest in India and help the country meet challenges such as food security, which was assuming a very grave magnitude.

Students can function as citizen diplomats... and collectively contribute to strengthen shared values between cultures. This year, nearly 100,000 Indian students are enrolled in American colleges... but only 3,000 American students are studying abroad in India.

APDS Blogger: Aparajitha Vadlamannati

Good public diplomats (like good teachers and students) impart knowledge, listen, create dialogue, engage others by helping to tackle tough issues, and are open to learning from the multitude of perspectives others present. They are imbued with an inclination to advance the education of everyone, as well as their own. So what better way is there to exemplify the reach of public diplomacy than through educational exchanges?

The audience in Los Angeles was transported to a country of mythic history, great wisdom and oneness with nature, of Himalayan peaks, trundling oxcarts and the love story of the Taj Mahal.

India’s regional literature offers plenty of potential to appeal to a world audience in a big way through appealing stories, poetries, novels, folk tales and also by its children’s literature.

India is one the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India recognizes 18 official regional languages in India with a developed script and literary tradition. In addition, there are nearly ‘1576 rationalized mother tongues’ or dialects as per the 1991 census of the Government of India. Linguistic diversity adds to the richness of Indian culture and every region of India has a highly developed literary tradition with excellent writers of national, and a few of international fame.

APDS Blogger: Rajesh Mirchandani

For anyone who is Indian-born, as I am, the chance to see Ravi Shankar perform is akin to an audience with the Pope for Catholics – and perhaps even harder to accomplish. This one-off show at the Disney Hall had been scheduled for October last year and postponed twice - due, the press release said, to “illness and visa complications” (a public diplomacy blunder for U.S. immigration?).