If India is perceived as corrupt on international indices as well as amongst its own people, then her credibility is damaged, and her ability to conduct public diplomacyis diminished, if not demolished.

APDS Blogger: Maya Babla

China has broadened its engagement in Nepal, both at political and institutional levels. It has also initiated Track-II diplomacy with Nepal and invited Nepalis scholars to visit Chinese think tanks. Besides, China is promoting China Study Centres (CSCs) in Kathmandu.

From US soldiers introducing chewing gum to France in 1917 to a toothbrush from a trench and newfangled machine guns and shells, the first world war has been given a revolutionary treatment in a new French war museum near Disneyland Paris. It was the first move in France's new campaign to develop itself as the world capital of war tourism.

Back in October, Japan’s national tourism agency floated a plan that seemed an ideal remedy to boost flagging visitor numbers in the wake of the March 11 disasters. Free flights to Japan in 2012. A full 10,000 of them. However, whatever tourism authorities thought a good idea, Japan simply can’t afford it, the government’s budget planners have concluded.

Even though India is the only large country in Asia where Japan does not have any historical baggage, and Japan has been broadly viewed favourably in Indian public opinion, the reverse is less true. Clearly, this is an area for the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs to focus on.

For the first time, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of India has initiated “The MEA Distinguished Lecture Series on India’s foreign policy.” Though Indian diplomats consistently speak at foreign university campuses and to think tanks around the world, this is the first time that MEA has undertaken such an exercise internally.

Rarely has the Indian government discussed matters of foreign relations with its citizens. Foreign policy, for a long time in India, has remained a preserve of the elites. The only foreign policy issue that might have sparked an interest in the average Indian, is its nation’s relations with Pakistan. Furthermore, this interest might only be true for an Indian living in the North. An Indian living nearly 3,000 kilometers away from Pakistan in India’s northeast, with no historical experience, would have little interest in its country’s relationship with Pakistan.