Overseas participants at the ongoing New Delhi World Book Fair are seeking to turn a new page beyond conventional agenda of strengthening business ties with India and striving to enhance cultural relations. 

Cooperation between the two nations was ramped up over a decade ago, but the Indian government preferred to keep a low profile, until now. An image published on Wednesday morning depicts an ongoing strategic development: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seen visiting the Israel Aerospace Industries exhibit at the Aero India exhibition in Bangalore.

The 2014 CPD Annual Review demonstrates that although public diplomacy is present in every region of the world, it is predominantly in the northern hemisphere. North America is ranked the most active region in public diplomacy, with the United States contributing the most. Asia (Asia Pacific, Southeast Asia and Central Asia combined) comes in second, and Europe is third, with almost the same presence as Asia. As expected, China, Japan, and South Korea take the lead as the major actors in Asia Pacific. India is also very active in PD in South Asia.

As part of the CPD Annual Review process, in January we highlighted some of the year’s key public diplomacy moments in our Top 10 List of the most notable stories from 2014.

Launched in 2013, the CPD Annual Review was developed to serve as a guide to understanding the global landscape of public diplomacy, its ebbs and flows, its triumphs and its shortcomings.

Is India’s Narendra Modi administration guilty of reducing the country’s strategic foreign policy discourse to a pedestrian level so much so that New Delhi has turned into an object of ridicule in the international diplomatic circle?