The Narendra Modi government has decided to make India's Buddhism links the centrepiece of its cultural diplomacy thrust through a blitzkrieg of novel projects, after the Prime Minister feted East Asian leaders through his first year in office with references to this religious bridge.

India’s vibrant diaspora could become a core component of foreign policy initiatives. It could be a vehicle of our soft power, writes NK Singh. [...] The initiatives of the ministry of overseas Indian affairs need innovation and restructuring. 

India has become the third most popular destination for young Australians with a total of 569 students opting to undertake short-term study projects in various disciplines in the country.

A comprehensive new ranking of countries labelled “Soft Power 30” by a London-based political consultancy, Portland Communications, carries a rude awakening for India. We are nowhere when it comes to being attractive and influential in the world, falling outside the top 30 nations for universally liked culture, widely admired political values and positively engaged foreign policy.

“India is set to reap large-scale benefits from its new foreign policy of global alignment,” Goyal said at a function, to mark the Universal Brotherhood Day, on Saturday. “The shift from non-alignment to global alignment was based on long-term vision and helped India gain greater acceptability in the world,” he said.

Pakistan and India have a history of holding non-starter talks which goes back to 1960s when the then foreign ministers Swaran Singh and ZA Bhutto held successive rounds of negotiations without any output. It is therefore the need of the hour that the Foreign Office, in consultation with all the stakeholders, should prepare a well defined agenda to discuss issues at the NSA level rather than discussing peripheral non-issues.

With bilateral trade between India and China reaching around $70 billion in the last fiscal, interest in Hindi language has surged in the dragon land.

A joint statement, issued after talks between PM Modi and UAE Crown Prince, asked countries to abandon the use of terrorism against others and dismantle terror infrastructures on their soil.