The impressive participation around the world on International Yoga Day is indeed a testimony to India’s immense reservoir of soft power. In his energetic engagement with world leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put a special emphasis on cultural diplomacy. Modi should, however, remember that India’s soft power has the greatest impact when official New Delhi keeps its heavy hand away from it. India is not new to cultural diplomacy. India’s self-discovery of its rich cultural heritage and its global reach played an important role in shaping its modern nationalism.

China is using its soft power in the form of foreign aid to change the world despite criticism from Western countries that its approach lacks transparency.

The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (Belt and Road) initiatives are the latest strategies in Beijing's foreign aid policy. Around 76 percent of the loans Beijing granted between January 2014 and March 2015 were to countries included in the trade and infrastructure projects aimed at linking China and Europe.

The more significant question to ask is whether it serves as an important tool for India’s aspirations as a global power. Many have written that yoga is one of the best “soft power” tools in India’s global tool kit. In the US alone, it claims to be a heavy-duty industry worth more than $30 billion. Most people who practice yoga know that it emerged in India almost 5,000 years ago, and recognise its holistic attributes. So, how will this grand-scale exercise enhance India’s global image?

India’s armed forces yesterday demonstrated the country’s ‘soft-power’, participating in the first International Yoga Day at the highest battlefield of Siachen to the South China Sea and Mediterranean Sea.
Soldiers practised yoga at the Siachen glacier, the world’s highest battlefield at 5,400m altitude, and also in Ladakh and Kargil, along with all major stations across the country.
The Indian Navy, observing “Yoga across the Oceans”, had ship crews stationed in international waters, from the Mediterranean to the South China Sea practising yoga.

Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar today performed yoga asanas with more than a thousand participants at a mega event organised here as part of International Yoga Day celebrations. Javadekar inaugurated the yoga session at 7 am at the Forest Research Institute premises here along with IFS probationers, officers and faculty members and followed it up with another programme held by Patanjali Yogpeeth at the Rangers Ground where he was accompanied by state BJP chief Tirath Rawat and Leader of Opposition in Assembly Ajay Bhatt. In his brief speech, Javadekar appealed to people to embr

The defence secretary has defended the government’s military strategy and spending, saying that “no country in Europe is playing such a strong global role”. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph he said the UK was “in it for the long term” when it came to Nato and deterring Russia, also hailing British operations against Islamic State (Isis) and humanitarian missions. [...] In his Telegraph article, Fallon highlighted the role of soft power in tackling the causes of instability, while also highlighting areas of military spending, including aircraft carriers and submarines.

New Delhi: The heart of India's capital will transform into a sea of colourful mats on Sunday as thousands perform the camel, cobra and other postures for the first International Yoga Day championed by Narendra Modi.

Shortly after dawn on a New Delhi boulevard, some 35,000 bureaucrats, students, soldiers and others are to take part in the 35-minute mass outdoor yoga session, hopeful of qualifying for theGuinness Book of Records.