Maximum India - a festival of India - will be held in Washington in March next year, showcasing Indian textiles, dance, music and cuisine to allow Americans 'experience' what US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle experienced in India.

An amusing episode from my first Foreign Service posting -- in London, where, doubtless by computer error, given the ordinariness of my name, I was assigned in the early 1980s as a USIA officer -- took place in the US Embassy cafeteria, where Secret Service agents assigned to cover a high-ranking official visit were having their midday meal.

Barack Obama, the charmer, won over India. The US President enthralled Indians by declaring that “in the years ahead, I look forward to a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member”.

Just as the second half of the 20th century was characterized by America's Atlantic partnership, the India-U.S. relationship will be the defining feature of the 21st century. Indians applaud President Obama's open appreciation and acknowledgement not only of Indian history and culture, but of the independent path India took toward prosperity. This path, which included a socialist economy and non-alignment, was one of the key causes for estrangement between these two democracies during the Cold War era.

Now that President Barack Obama has concluded his $200 million per day trip to India (just kidding—that risible far right-wing canard has been thoroughly debunked), it’s a good moment for some initial thoughts about the soft power dimensions of the episode.

Now that President Barack Obama has concluded his $200 million per day trip to India (just kidding—that risible far right-wing canard has been thoroughly debunked), it’s a good moment for some initial thoughts about the soft power dimensions of the episode.

India's soft power has failed to use contemporary art or its living artists as a tool for cultural diplomacy. In all the euphoria of the Obama visit and the ramifications for everything from bilateral business deals, odes to Indian culinary excellence and Michelle's bazaar-style shopping, the one thing that was oddly missing was any reference to art.

India and the United States signed three science pacts, covering clean energy, disease surveillance and monsoon forecasting, during US president Barack Obama's Asia visit this week.