Few hours before making it official from the US side, Modi had hit his favourite Twitter informing the public about his invitation to US President Obama, saying: “This Republic Day, we hope to have a friend over…invited President Obama to be the 1st US President to grace the occasion as Chief Guest.”

While Modi has been raising the country's global profile for a while now with high-profile visits to Japan, the US and, most recently, to Australia, to be followed later with Russia and the UK, so far we have tended to dismiss each one of his visits as more hype than substance.(...)President Barack Obama's acceptance of Modi's invitation to be the guest of honour at the Republic Day parade is possibly the tipping point that separates pure atmospherics from reality. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have made Forbes’ latest list of the world’s most powerful people, but he is part of a dwindling group. Money rather than political clout is deemed to be the currency of power today.

Our PM Narendra Modi is leaving no stone unturned to create a positive image of India among foreign investors and capitalists. But it seems we need some serious makeover and efforts to improve the branding of our nation, as compared to other developed nations, we are still a beginner.

Indian officials are scrambling to find a solution to a German language problem in Indian schools that is fast becoming a diplomatic problem with Germany. 

When Indian prime minister Narendra Modi landed in Brisbane for the G20 summit with two of his nation's greatest cricketers, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, in tow as members of his official party, his nation's political commentators described it as "crafty" to employ cricket diplomacy in sports-mad Down Under.

The business potential of the globally popular ancient practice makes the newly created ministry easier to justify.

India-Pakistan relations are not on the mend. They are deteriorating. Invitations to the heads of SAARC countries to attend the inauguration of Narendra Modi was really meant to signal that a new kind of leadership in India was at the helm, one with a different vision and approach to national and international affairs.