A recent proposal of the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry to this effect received a big thumbs-up from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now the ministry has started planning the dedicated corpus — funded by the government and the film industry — to finance full-fledged publicity campaigns for India’s entries in the run-up to the Academy Awards. 

Indian prime ministers have made it a practice to meet Indian communities during their foreign tours for the past two decades, but Modi has made a more concerted effort to harness the energy of the diaspora by holding public meeting like galas in major cities abroad.

India remains an integral part of Afghanistan’s steady progress in institutionalizing peace, pluralism, and prosperity. Ties between Afghanistan and India go beyond the traditionally strong relations at the government level. [...] Moreover, in an effort to further solidify ties between Afghans and Indians, the Afghan Embassy in Delhi has initiated the creation of sister-city relations between major Indian cities and states and their Afghan counterparts. 

Pakistan and India have been commemorating the 1965 war. Their governments and intelligentsia would do well to reflect on its baleful consequences on travel, cultural exchange and trade between them. Both countries were overwhelmed with bitterness.

New Delhi’s desire to reclaim for India the influence and cultural relations it once enjoyed with the countries of Central Asia before the dawn of colonialism can only be reasonably realized through Iran. India and Iran also share many similarities: Extra-regional ambitions and a strong sense that they pursuing an independent foreign policy are common traits in the diplomatic behavior of both countries.

Not all Indians need be vegetarian for vegetarianism to be wielded as another manifestation of India’s soft power — alongside yoga, ayurveda, cuisine, classical arts, and religious pluralism. [...] From Gandhi to Pramukhswami and from Prime Minister Modi to Jain munis, no civilization is synonymized with a value that happens to be healthy for the body and planet, but is repudiated by its media and intelligentsia.

Gastronomic diplomacy has its place in world history and it’s gratifying to see India and Pakistan engage in it with such passion. Prime Minister Modi did it at the Hannover Messe — exposing Germany to India’s soft power.  And now, it is Pakistan’s turn to reach out to Indian hearts via the stomach. A happy stomach is the precursor of congenial diplomacy.