India is likely to bolster its 'Look East Act East' policy with a good dose of Buddhism and project it as a cultural and civilisational bridge with the countries in South East Asia. Modi himself gave enough indications of this in his speech on Monday.

Ahead of his visit to China—from May 14 to 16—India’s social-media friendly Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the Chinese social media platform Weibo to connect with Chinese citizens. (Hello China! Looking forward to interacting with Chinese friends through Weibo)”, Prime Minister said through his social media account.

Even as the Narendra Modi government talks big about projecting India’s soft power, India’s main instrument for cultural diplomacy continues to wallow in severe fund crunch, forcing it to now open new cultural centres abroad only in collaboration with private organisations.

Even as the Narendra Modi government talks big about projecting India’s soft power, India’s main instrument for cultural diplomacy continues to wallow in severe fund crunch, forcing it to now open new cultural centres abroad only in collaboration with private organisations.

Prime minister Narendra Modi is the third most followed and fifth most influential leader globally, according to a new report called Twiplomacy 2015, a study of world leaders on Twitter Inc by global public relations and communications firm Burson-Marsteller. The study identified 669 Twitter accounts of heads of state and government, foreign ministers and their institutions in 166 countries worldwide to analyse each leader’s Twitter profile, tweet history, and connections with the others.

After the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that flattened parts of the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu on Saturday and unleashed avalanches on Mount Everest, India and China barely missed a beat. Within hours of the disaster, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dispatched military aircraft carrying workers, medicines and blankets.

Colourful mechanised lions, the cogwheel logo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet Make in India initiative, welcomed him from every corner of this German town on Sunday and underscored the agenda he would push in a country known the world over for its engineering and economy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will do a repeat of his Madison Square Garden act during his next month's visit to China that will make him the first Indian leader to address the communist nation's burgeoning Indian community, whose numbers have swelled to 45,000.