It is the imperative to include overseas Indians in India’s economic development and to take care of their needs and aspirations. Successive governments have been vying with each other to give more and more concessions to them as acknowledgment of their contribution by way of remittances, investment, lobbying for India, promoting Indian culture abroad and for building a good image of India by their intelligence and industry.

The main assertion of Deep K. Datta-Ray is that Indian diplomacy is rooted in the Mahabharata , which predates modern Western diplomacy by several centuries. The author presents his case ably and at great length. He illuminates Indian diplomacy’s lifeline to our ancient heritage and brings the analysis all the way to the present.

As social media has emerged as a key communications tool, the External Affairs Ministry has come on the top among various ministries and government departments in terms of its presence on digital platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+.