The government and private sector don’t always get along. But Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton’s current counselor and chief of staff (and former deputy White House counsel for President Bill Clinton), believes that entrepreneurship and strategic investments from the private sector can do more than government assistance alone in transforming countries in need.

India faces a choice: be a cog in the wheel of the US’ Asia-Pacific strategy or be a wheel by itself with a dynamics of its own. The choice is going to be rather easy for the Indian policymakers to make.

Turkey’s “Arab Spring” forays into Middle Eastern diplomacy, have drawn much attention on the international stage. Its launch into Africa, however, has gone little noticed by a world more focused on China’s involvement in the sub-Saharan region.

Poland and Ukraine have the opportunity this month to promote sport in its best light, and both countries hope that the trade-off in terms of new infrastructure and political and economic influence is what they bargained for when they bid five years ago to jointly hold Europe’s soccer championship...

Is this “superpower” model going against the very fundamentals of India’s “soft power”? Three characteristics distinguish India: a 5,000-year-old extant, unbroken, well-documented, civilisational, cultural heritage; an overwhelming population of no less than 1.2 billion; and a living laboratory for pluralistic development without a common spoken language.

Valued at $2.6 billion, with a promise by Wanda to invest an additional $500 million to update facilities, the deal seems like a win-win for the current owners and employees of AMC, as well as for Chinese investors intent on learning the business of movie distribution and extending China's soft power.

Turkey, a rapidly growing economy and multi-party democracy that has applied to join the European Union, is widely regarded as a model for Muslim and other developing countries. It has also raised the flag over trail blazing construction projects across former Soviet Central Asia and the Caucasus region.

Young creative people and entrepreneurs in Nigeria stand the chance of winning prizes, in a series of competition recently unveiled by theideaworks, a design and strategy firm based in Delhi. Called ‘INDIAFRICA: A Shared Future’, the initiative comprises an online contest and a young visionaries segment for young entrepreneurs in India and Africa.