The Havana Biennial art exposition wrapping up Monday has been held 12 times since the 1980s. But this is the first since U.S. efforts to improve relations with Cuba began six months ago, allowing an unusually large contingent of American visitors. Here are some observations from U.S. art collectors and their representatives about how Havana's art scene has evolved and the impact of detente. Janda Wetherington, whose Pan American Art Projects gallery in Miami specializes in Cuban art, says prices have gone up since the last Biennial.

To commemorate the International Yoga Day, the Indian embassy in Indonesia has released a special publication, a comic book focusing on the historic India-Indonesia relationship. "Travels through Time", is a part of the ongoing "Sahabat India: Festival of India in Indonesia" which has revived and revitalised India's cultural links with Indonesia at large. The comic book begins with when Indonesia and India came into contact and goes through different periods of historic, social and cultural interaction.

These are part of the proposed changes in the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules suggested by the Home Ministry seeking to tighten the noose around erring NGOs. The Ministry has also suggested that banks will have to inform it within 48 hours of receipt of foreign funds by any NGO. Earlier, NGOs were mandated to put in public domain details if receipt of foreign donations by them were in excess of Rs one crore and the same was also done only at the end of the financial year.

The correction was delivered with a smirk: “Trienal.” [...] When the Havana Biennial was founded in 1984, it was set up, like much of the Castro government’s internationalist initiatives up to that point, as a Latin American rejoinder to the Anglo-European — or imperialist — skew of global culture. The second biennial expanded its reach to Asia and Africa, and by the third, in 1989, this focus was articulated theoretically, with landmark texts on “Third World aesthetics” published in the official catalogue that have since become part of the art historical canon.

Foraying into Myanmar and snuffing out militants to avenge the death of Army men killed on Indian soil is one aspect of the Narendra Modi government which has its clutch of takers. While special forces of the Army fight the nation’s battle, the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, Culture Ministry, Information and Broadcasting Ministry and Health Ministry are waging a different battle for the minds, leading to what some historians say is a situation where an entire population could be lulled into thinking and acting on similar lines.

The European Forum Wachau is a European debate event and will be held this weekend at the Stift Göttweig in Lower Austria. The event was launched in 1995, the year of Austria's accession to the European Union. Participants of the conference titled “Has Europe reached its limits? Reflections on Europe’s future role on the global stage” will discuss topics such as, the EU as a security provider, the EU's new mode of regional cooperation and the EU and her neighbours.