Thailand should take the lead as the "United States of Asean" and take advantage of the Kingdom's rich, religious culture as its selling points in branding itself ahead of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, said marketing guru Philip Kotler. "Thailand has a beautiful culture and is one of the major Buddhist countries in Southeast Asia. The country is religious-oriented and has a good harmony and principles of good living. These should be the selling points of Thailand," he said.

Over the course of the past 20 years, I have observed or participated in counterinsurgency campaigns in South Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan in both military and civilian capacities. Some were done poorly, some successfully. The one thing that I have learned is that each is unique in its own way and there are no templates that will work in all cases.

Mongolia is trying to increase the National Brand Index to at least inside the top 50 in the world. The two day "Mongolian Economic Forum" has opened today at the Parliament. Prime Minister Altankhyag has addressed the importance of increasing the brand image of Mongolia as they have not even achieved within the top 50 in the world.

Mumbai: American singer-songwriter and pianist Norah Jones performed live for the first time in India here. The Grammy winning daughter of late sitar legend Ravi Shankar gave her maiden performance during ‘A Summer’s Day’ festival in Mumbai.

After the 'snub' from Wharton, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address the Indian diaspora in the states of Edison, New Jersey, Chicago, Illinois, of USA through a video conference facility. "Narendra Modi live speech, Edison, New Jersey, Chicago, Illinois...

Salman Rushdie was recently asked for his opinion on contemporary Indian fiction. The celebrated novelist surveyed the landscape for his interviewer, offering nods of approval to what is now a well established range of Indian writing in English. But it wasn’t as attractive as what was happening across the border. “I actually think,” Rushdie said, “that the Pakistani stuff is more interesting.”

The United States entered Afghanistan and Iraq knowing what it wanted to eliminate – Osama bin Laden’s sanctuary and Saddam Hussein’s regime – but with only a vague conception of a desired strategic end state. In Iraq, the lack of a post-conflict strategy was not an oversight, but deliberate. In neither case was there a grasp of the political, social and cultural forces in those countries that would shape the eventual outcomes.

The newly released budget has not only protected but has actually increased India's foreign assistance, or development partnerships as the government prefers to call it. It has done so despite fiscal pressures to decrease spending, as well as pre-election year pressures to increase funding only for programmes that will gain votes.