The BBC has warned the government that its global news presence will end up marginalised by overseas rivals such as Russia Today and al-Jazeera unless multimillion-pound cuts are reversed.

A day after sending out a clear message to the world about India’s prime place in the United State’s vision for the Asia-Pacific and beyond, its President Barack Obama was today witnessed as chief guest on the country’s Republic Day Parade, a display of India’s both military might and its soft power.

In the Japanese government’s new budget, one small item stands out: a $5 million grant to Columbia University in New York to fund a position for a professor of Japanese politics and foreign policy.

India has long seemed unable or unwilling to become a major player on the world stage. But the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, is looking to change all that. In order to compensate for a small and weak foreign service, he is tapping into India’s considerable soft power: its emigrants, intellectuals, and yogis.

A good Muslim engagement strategy supported by the U.S. proved effective in 2005 in Belgium in creating a model for how to engage 500,000 Muslims largely from Turkey and Morocco. The U.S. Embassy in Brussels, together with nongovernmental organizations and private sponsors from the United States and Belgium, brought together an impressive group of American Muslims to meet with an equally impressive group of Belgian Muslims to discuss everyday practical issues regarding Muslim participation in society.

Equality of all faiths before the law is a foundational feature of India's constitutional democracy, President Pranab Mukherjee, has said in his address to the nation on the eve of Republic Day.  The co-existence of various faiths was a matter of pride for India and a source of the country's "soft power" the President said.