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Division through our publications, documentary films and selections of popular and classical music that can be used by our diplomatic missions to project India. We are also increasingly aware of the need to emphasise our image as a country that embraces diversity, with its secular ethos, and vibrant democracy, as also our determination to resist terrorism and militancy, and the forces that threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity. In this connection, our public diplomacy efforts must focus on the composite nature of our culture, our inter-religious harmony, and our emphasis on inclusive, integrative growth, especially when it comes to outreach in our neighbourhood, in Southeast Asia, in the Gulf countries and in Africa. We see the need for audiences abroad particularly to be made more aware of our technical and economic cooperation programmes and our grant assistance and concessional lines of credit (LoCs) to a number of countries. The revival of an irrigation project that has doubled Senegal’s rice output and made the country self sufficient in rice for the first time in a generation; a power transmission project that is helping take surplus electricity from Cote d’Ivoire to Mali; a regional centre for excellence in IT that Ghana has established, and an entire IT park that Mauritius has....and dozens of other similar examples speak of our partnerships in development cooperation. We currently extend LoCs of over USD 10 billion to countries in Africa and elsewhere but they hardly find a mention in either the Indian or the international media. Similarly, the excellent development work that we have done for the people of Afghanistan under constant threat from terrorist forces needs to be explained to the world. We have traditionally tended to adopt a fairly conservative approach towards publicising our own work and this, almost by default, leaves the field open for negative stories of which there is never a dearth. From a public diplomacy standpoint, I think it is vital that we start building credible and engaging narratives about the positive work that we do. These would not only provide global audiences with a perspective of the geographical spread and impact of
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With Facebook or Twitter, idioms must be tailored to cater also to the language that the younger sections of our population speak
That is why soft power, 24/7 media, Web 2.0 tools and the role of corporates in public diplomacy are so useful and relevant
our development partnerships but also bring from our own public and Parliament an appreciation of our activities. Yet another aspect on which public diplomacy needs to focus is crisis management in extraordinary situations—getting the government’s message out and addressing public opinion directly with the purpose of informing, reassuring and enabling sober and wellreasoned responses that are bereft of rumour and speculation. I also wish to focus on what I call the domestication of foreign policy and this is where public diplomacy, public affairs and public relations cross-fertilise each other. One of the key initiatives that we have taken in recent months focuses on creating a more informed discourse on foreign policy issues within our own country. We recognise that many of these issues are increasingly intertwined with domestic agendas, and as a democracy, we cannot avoid the responsibility of communicating our position more effectively to key segments of public opinion. Since its start in February, our MEA Distinguished Lecture Series on India’s Foreign Policy has touched 24 different university campuses, virtually all of them outside Delhi. The topics for the lectures are selected by the universities and the lectures are delivered by retired ambassadors with domain knowledge of the particular topic. The lively interactive sessions that accompany these lectures, the presence of local media and the participation of civil society have made this program an important component of our public diplomacy efforts.
Multimodal communication is needed A related program that has a strong domestic focus pertains to the seminars, conferences and workshops on foreign policy themes that we support and organise. Our conferences on Indo-Nepal relations in Patna and Varanasi and on India’s Look East policy in Shillong and Guwahati are examples of our conscious endeavour to take foreign policy discussions to places where they also resonate as issues that concern local populations and opinion makers. The success of these initiatives clearly depends on the active participation and support of a range of other organisations that often have a better understanding of specific sectors and issues. We are fortunate in having partnerships with business chambers, think tanks, academic institutions, cultural organisations, members of the Indian diaspora and others with whom we collaborate in pursuit of our public diplomacy objectives. I would be the first to acknowledge that these are no more than initial steps in a process that is bound to get increasingly complex as new media and communications technologies take us into uncharted territories. There is much that we must do to put in place a framework for strategic communications and for developing a lucid, encompassing vision of Brand India that goes even beyond the brilliantly successful Incredible India campaign. That is why soft power, 24/7 media, Web 2.0 tools and the role of corporates in public diplomacy are so useful and relevant.