Culture plays an important role in promoting tactful conversations or negotiations, and therefore it is surprising that cultural techniques have not been included as an effective instrument of diplomacy, the former ambassador, Suresh K. Goel, said here on Thursday.

With more than 22 million Indians living abroad and about seven million Pakistanis doing the same, the expatriate communities have found ways to put their grudges from back home aside and even formed lasting friendships in their new countries. 

Crediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “whirlwind tours” and “out-of-the-box initiatives” for bringing about a sea change in India’s global image, the Union Minister for External Affairs and Overseas Indian Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said even softer powers, like yoga, Indian curry and Bollywood songs, have contributed to enhancing the “image of a new India”.

The 13th Pravasi Bharat Diwas, starting Wednesday in Gandhinagar, will be used by the Narendra Modi government to showcase not just opportunities unleashed by a wave of economic reforms but also emphasize use of India's soft power to conduct its foreign policy.

India and South Korea share warm and friendly relations that are officially described as a “friction-free relationship”. Its major companies have experience of manufacturing in India, and South Korea is looking to diversify its markets. (...) Korea with its trade and economic prowess should be a natural partner for prime minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ programme.

With the India story growing worldwide, it is not farfetched to imagine that Indian stars could eventually exert influence beyond the diaspora when it comes to politics.

From Narendra Modi’s landslide victory in India to a one-sided and violent election in Bangladesh, from mass demonstrations in Islamabad to campaigning for an early presidential poll in Sri Lanka, 2014 was a year of fast and furious politics for the fifth of the world’s population who live in south Asia.

With slightly more than three weeks to go before Barack Obama arrives in New Delhi, India's public diplomacy in the United States of America has been thrown at the deep end of the Potomac, the river that is a symbol of America's capital.