Govt plans revamp of nation’s soft power outreach

NEW DELHI: India’s soft-power reach out is undergoing a makeover to meet the challenges of the resource-crunch in spreading its art, culture, culinary traditions, as well as entertainment and spiritualism overseas.

Compared to countries like China or the UK, what India has been spending on leveraging its soft-powertowinfriendsoverseas remains negligible. Soft-power plays an important part in winningfriendsandgoodwillabroad.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), an arm of the external affairs ministry which mostly handles cultural diplomacy, had a budgetary allocation of ₹192 crore in 2015 -16.

However, this amount pales in comparison to what Indian government sources estimate the British Council spends per year — ₹8000 crore.

The government hopes that the mobilisation of inter-ministerial resources and the employing of a public-private partnership (PPP) model could help them address this fund shortage

The government seems to be hoping that some measures are taken in order for its soft power push. “We have decided to raise the resources available within the various departments of the government which have been tasked with the promotion of softpower,” ICCR director general Amarendra Khatua said.

Government is also pushing for a PPP model for establishing language chairs aboard. Another measure planned is getting reciprocal hospitality from organisations that would be willing to host delegations from India.