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. 

Soft Power as opposed to Hard Power is not at all new to the developing world. The concept of Non-alignment, for example, is a manifestation of this species of power which, essentially, is an expression of a country’s or a group of countries’ humanistic values as opposed to their military or coercive capability. Accordingly, Soft Power has its origins in spirituality and religion and pertains to those qualities of heart and mind which play a key role in fostering world solidarity.

Two Chinese influential government-backed institutions have teamed up with an Indian media group to set up a multi-disciplined body in China to promote trade, research and people-to-people contacts. [...] This will be to collaborate in stimulating high-powered business activity, research and people-to-people contacts at decision-making levels in both private and public sectors, promote research in trade and culture as well as organize seminars and publish academic papers. 

The Narendra Modi government has pulled out all the stops to host the first all-Africa Summit in India. If China could get heads of state and government of an entire continent at a single venue in 2006, a faster growing India can surely do so in 2015. Well, almost. 

With the Modi government planning to host representatives of more than 50 African States in New Delhi from 26 to 29 October, it is time to understand what this means for India, the reason for this sudden interest and what the dimensions are of this engagement.

After January 2015’s  presidential polls—otherwise known as the Rainbow Revolution—that ousted “friend of China” Rajapaksa, Beijing’s influence over Colombo was said to be gradually receding from the sandy shores of the island traditionally seen as within India’s periphery of influence.

He added,”In a bid to make the festival more meaningful we follow a theme every year. This year, the social theme defining some of the panel discussions is Global Image of India. Every citizen should work towards upholding the core moral values of society, contribute to the social and environmental welfare of the country and be a global ambassador for India.”

As India enters its 70th year of independence and its status on the world stage grows, its position within Asia becomes more critical. It's high time India consciously, calculatingly and coordinately uses its ample soft power to its advantage. One way is to open a global chain of "Gandhi Centers."