The group was the first Indo-Fijian group to be invited by the Indian government to participate in the inaugural International Ramayan Mela in Delhi hosted by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

Cultural diplomacy is an important component to enhance international relations in an increased globalised, interdependent world, says Fiji's High Commissioner to India Yogesh Karan.

The two countries signed an agreement on cultural cooperation enhancing cooperation in a variety of fields including performing arts, libraries, archives and documentation, publications and professional exchange.

Mr Nye, a veteran observer of global affairs, is more optimistic. He expects that America will still play the central role in the global balance of power in the 2040s. What, after all, is the alternative?

For years, Indians viewed their countrymen who emigrated abroad for better opportunities with suspicion – as if they’d somehow betrayed the motherland. (...)And the country’s new government is looking at the huge expatriate population – second only to China’s – as a valuable component of India’s foreign policy, in much the same way the Jewish diaspora in the US influences international opinion and policy on Israel.

Dr. Chandra stressed that to emerge as a leader in this global race for mind share, India will have to strengthen its reach to the humanity across the globe and for this traditional as well as the new media will be required to be strengthened.

Her goal is that art should trickle down to the masses (hence the focus on several outreach programs in recent art fairs), her hope is that the Indian art world believes in itself and her dream is that someday art would be considered an important tool of cultural diplomacy.

The plan, a part of the foreign office's "public diplomacy" initiatives, will start with a national, multi-stage essay-writing competition among the over 10,000 students at the central schools, but could then be expanded to other educational institutions as well, officials said.