Six months after the launch of the India: Inside Out project, the results are in. Indian Public Diplomacy: A Strategic Future is the report produced by our team. It assesses six core areas of Indian public diplomacy, and offers four strategic recommendations for the future.
On behalf of the India: Inside Out research team, I invite your comments, questions, and feedback.
By Maya Babla
In November 2010, President Obama said on his inaugural visit to New Delhi, “India is not simply emerging, it has emerged.” In many ways, of course, this is true. India endured the economic collapse with resiliency, hovering between seven and nine percent GDP growth in 2011; it is speculated that the country has a chance at permanent-member status on the United Nations Security Council; and with its young population, India is perfectly poised on a trajectory to world leadership. On the other hand, India still lags behind on several key human development indices, ranking 134 of 187 in the most recent UN report, a challenge compounded by rapid urbanization.
For all these reasons and complexities—and a few more—India makes for a fascinating case study in public diplomacy, and in December 2011, six of my colleagues and I journeyed to New Delhi, Vishakapatnam, and Mumbai with the goal of appraising India’s public diplomacy strategy. Over the course of two weeks, we met with Indian government and civil society leaders, explored the culture, and experienced the sights, sounds, and smells of two of India’s largest cities. And along the way, we shared our conversations with people from around the world through this website. Our key deliverable will be a report that summarized our findings in six key areas: government public diplomacy, development, urbanization, citizen diplomacy, media, and Indo-Arab relations. The report will be available on this site in the coming weeks.
In approaching this project, my core question was one that required reconciliation, rather than an answer. How can India boast such high levels of economic growth, yet sustain some of the worst rates of child malnutrition, poverty, and gender inequity in the developing world? It’s a question that media coverage of India is beginning to ask: http://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2012/01/pilger-india-land-advertising”>is India’s rise as a “new world power” both true and a “false reality”? Development was a key research area for us, and yielded a clear finding: Indians are hands-on when it comes to addressing the development challenges the country faces. They are engaged and invested in their own development, and this message was palpable in our conversations with a host of NGOs, social justice activists, and graduate students. Yet these groups may not be representative of all Indians; one of our Indian interviewees proposed that Indians’ “cultural tolerance of inequality is tremendous.”
Thus, while we found that India has a robust civil society that in many ways is filling in the gaps that the government cannot due to a shortage of manpower, the Government of India could be doing much more to engage its own citizens in development, and for that matter, in public diplomacy.
By seeing a large population as an opportunity—a strength to be leveraged—India would achieve both its internal and external public diplomacy objectives. In our conversation with Anita Rajan, who is a part of the office that advises the Prime Minister on the National Council on Skill Development (NCSD), she described India as being “on the brink,” and ready to excel in the next decade, provided that India’s youth population is equipped with the right skills. NCSD uses a public-private partnership model to provide vocational training, with the goal of skilling 500 million people by 2022, and these partnerships, it became clear, are paramount in enabling large-scale change.
We found that many Indians unknowingly act as citizen diplomats; take, for example, the leadership team at Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP), an organization that trains women community leaders—from entrepreneurs to lawyers—in conflict transformation. They take on the challenging process of tough relationships like Kashmir and Pakistan: areas many people cast aside as too touchy. One aspect of their programs is facilitating dialogue between these women leaders, the military, and government bureaucrats. WISCOMP’s approach is another model that can be replicated, and the more these types of collaborations happen, the closer India comes to achieving its public diplomacy objectives.
One challenge the Government of India will face along the way is the diluted citizen trustin its activities. A recent Times of India poll found that http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-01-25/india/30662530_1_biggest-threat-youth-power-cities”>60% of Indians feel that corruption is the country’s biggest weakness, up nearly 20% from a Hindu Times poll conducted in February 2011. This is a critical problem because if India is perceived as corrupt on international indices as well as amongst its own people, then her credibility is damaged, and her ability to conduct public diplomacy is diminished, if not demolished. The government gets this, as evidenced by the comprehensive e-governance plan produced under the leadership of Abhishek Singh in the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology. India’s e-governance initiatives are promising on two fronts: first, the plan is accelerating the rate at which rural India becomes Internet-connected, and further accelerates the debate India must now face over Internet freedom; second, India’s expertise in e-governance creates an opportunity to share its expertise with other countries facing similar issues.
India’s relationship with the Arab world was an interesting case study for understanding the country’s foreign relations, and where public diplomacy fits in—or doesn’t. On the surface, Indo-Arab relations can be characterized as a strong business partnership. Given the many cultural and religious ties and a large Indian diaspora community in many Gulf countries, not expanding on this is a missed opportunity. But what is more promising, and more quietly pursued, is India’s engagement with countries working to re-build their governments post-revolution; here, India can offer its expertise as the world’s largest democracy, which will perhaps be more warmly welcomed than the American variety.
It became clear to us that India has much to offer the world besides its economic prowess. Indians’ work towards solving their country’s challenges is promising; the next step for India is in leveraging both the work of government and Indian civil society to do international knowledge sharing and capacity building. In doing so, India will rightly find its role in world leadership.
This piece was originally published for the USC Center on Public Diplomacy’s December 2011/January 2012 issue of PDiN Monitor.
By Jerry Edling
NEW DELHI – India is often celebrated as a contradiction in terms, so it may not be surprising to learn that even though the country has only about 10% Internet penetration, it is very actively moving into e-governance while at the same time struggling with the issues of Internet freedom that are confronting most democracies. Spearheading the effort to achieve a more transparent and digital mode of government is Abhishek Singh, the Director of E Governance at the Department of Information Technology in the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology for the Government of India, who met with the India: Inside Out team on December 13.The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) is designed to expedite such tasks as applying for a passport, registering a business and processing land records. To quote the promotional brochure, “No queues. No multiple windows. No delays. The beginning of the NeGP marks the end of all that.” That’s quite a goal for a nation renowned for an often opaque and confusing bureaucracy. Continue reading
Posted in Government Public Diplomacy, Public Diplomacy
Tagged abhishek singh, e-governance, kapil sibal
“India is a complex nation.” These are words I heard many times throughout my short two-week span in India, and after much reflection, I believe I may have finally gained a speck of clarity about what this statement means, and why it became a recurring theme in conversations about where India is today and where its future lies. I set out to examine the state of India’s urban issues; to determine whether the strength of the nation is stemming from its megacities, urban populations and local innovations. What I found is that identifying India’s strengths and weaknesses is a complex task, and often, they are one and the same.
In New Delhi, our team met with Harsh Mander with the Center for Equity Studies (CES). CES conducts research and advocacy for social and economic justice, and under their umbrella, the Dil Se campaign was established to provide services to street children in Delhi. After visiting a school for boys that was established as part of the Dil Se campaign, and hearing about the vast needs of urban children in Delhi and throughout India, it was obvious that great efforts are being taken to correct a growing problem that has left many children without proper education, health, and other basic needs and opportunities.
Dil Se Classroom - Photo by Anna Dawson
Our conversation with Mr. Mander revealed several things: collaboration with government on urban social issues is a must; societies must reclaim responsibility for their citizens; and populations must understand the issues that are common to us all in order to find solutions to the problems that unite us. Continue reading
By Maya Babla
NEW DELHI – Yesterday the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament passed the Lokpal bill by a voice vote. This high-profile piece of legislation has been advocated by Anna Hazare, a social activist whose movement has recently come to symbolize Indian citizens frustration with government corruption. India ranks 87 out of 178 in Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perception Index, which measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption, and 134/183 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business survey.
Recently, a series of scandals have ravaged the country: a telecommunications scandal, a housing loan scam, and the disastrous Commonwealth Games. Amplified by a feisty media, the result was a tarnishing of India’s reputation abroad and a disheartening of Indians at home. Not surprisingly, then, in February 2011, a public opinion poll carried out by the Hindu Times found that 41% of Indians thought corruption was the biggest problem facing the country.
By Mona El Hamdani
MUMBAI – So far, my journey in India has been extraordinary, and as it was stated in one of the tourist guide books, India is not for the faint-hearted. It is the land of extremes. India is a land of magnificent ancient history that takes your breath away. The castles, the forts, the temples, the mosques– all tell a beautiful story of the civilizations that existed in India through history. The human and the cultural diversity is extremely rich and makes India one of the few places in this planet where diversity is so intense that it becomes hard for people visiting to grasp the whole picture surrounding it.
Meanwhile, India is still captive to a number of deep problems that are holding her back from crossing over to the camp of developed countries. Poverty and corruption are among the main issues that India is suffering from and time is pressing to find adequate solutions to, at the least, limit their impact on Indian development process. This general impression of India has been the product of a week of exposure to Indian politics, culture and human and social components. During this first week I have been also focusing on digging out new information and new manifestations of Indian Arab relations from a public diplomacy perspective, since my research interest has been focused around this issue.
India and the Arab World and more specifically, the Gulf countries, primarily share a strong business relationship. The UAE relations with India represent a classic example of this type of business relationship. During the trip to Delhi our group had the opportunity to meet and interact with the UAE Ambassador to India, Mohamed Sultan Abdalla Al Owais, who has provided an important insight regarding relations between the two countries. Bilateral relations have been described to be very strong as the two countries are strategic partners. Continue reading
By Aparajitha Vadlamannati
NEW DELHI – Who would think that India could have a problem with finding enough people? When you look at India, a shortage of people seems impossible. As the world’s second most populous nation, India has grown in leaps and bounds in the last 30 years with millions of skilled workers in every industry imaginable. But at home, in the government, India just doesn’t have the manpower it needs to execute effective public diplomacy.
Running a government, a working democracy, requires manpower composed of steadfast, trustworthy, knowledgeable, and concerned citizens committed to serving their fellow citizen. Unfortunately entering the civil service is impeded by the constraints of hiring policies, budget restraints, and exams and procedures with limited intake and numerous qualified candidates. Complications in the traditional route to government employment lead to public-private partnerships and concerned citizens supporting civil service action by non-profits. Continue reading
By Hend Alhinnawi
LOS ANGELES – What is the best form of public diplomacy? It’s the type of diplomacy that promotes American values such as the right to peace and prosperity through building strong ties with people directly. United States Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Ann Stock, expressed that
“The mission of American public diplomacy is to support the achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals and objectives, advance national interests, and enhance national security by informing and influencing foreign publics and by expanding and strengthening the relationship between the people and government of the United States and citizens of the rest of the world.”
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the face of the American people overseas, and for the past 50 years, it has carried out its humanitarian mission through “saving lives, building partnerships, and promoting peace and prosperity for the developing world and the American people.”
These definitions suggest, then, that United States uses foreign aid as part of its public diplomacy strategy. USAID funds infrastructure, cultural preservation projects, public works and economic investment initiatives in many developing countries, including India. Continue reading
Posted in Aid Diplomacy, Government Public Diplomacy, Public Diplomacy
Tagged foreign aid, rajiv shah, Rajiv Sharma, USAID
By Mona El Hamdani
LOS ANGELES – It is a fact: India’s booming economy and population will result in a substantial increase in its needs in terms of energy resources and global partners. Many countries around the globe are recognizing India’s rising power and are working to strengthen their economic, political and social ties with her. Partnering with India has been increasingly present in the agendas of many Arab states especially the Gulf countries, but not as a priority. In spite of this increasing awareness of the importance of India as a strong future ally and partner, Arab states are still not fully engaging India through building strong and reliable relations especially on the front of public diplomacy. The current efforts mainly revolve around trying to agree on and sign bilateral trade and energy agreements. Diplomacy between the Gulf countries and India has remained at the government to government level, not really reaching the public. Continue reading
By Maya Babla
Welcome to INDIA: INSIDE OUT. To learn more about what this project is all about, please click here.
This project conceives of public diplomacy as being conducted by governments, but also by NGOs and the private sector. That said, “official” definitions offered by governments provide a useful starting place for discussion.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) writes in its Mission Statement that,
“The Public Diplomacy Division seeks to create a better understanding of India and its foreign policy concerns. We intend to put in place a system that enables us to engage more effectively with our citizens in India and with global audiences that have an interest in foreign policy issues.”
As defined by the Department of State, the mission of American public diplomacy is:
“to support the achievement of U.S. foreign policy goals and objectives, advance national interests, and enhance national security by informing and influencing foreign publics and by expanding and strengthening the relationship between the people and government of the United States and citizens of the rest of the world.”
There are two key differences between these definitions:
1. While the US definition privileges the achievement of US foreign policy goals, Indian public diplomacy is primarily focused on articulating who India is, and what her role is on the global stage. This is what Indian MP Shashi Tharoor called for last year: “a positive and forward-looking strategy that projects a vision of India in the world, that helps define and shape what is increasingly being called Brand India.”
2. Secondly, the MEA definition includes both foreign and domestic audiences, a signal of what Tharoor cited as the “need for an informed, engaged citizenry to face up to the responsibilities of being a global player in the 21st century.”
Nirupama Rao, when she was Foreign Secretary, suggested that as an emergent power, and as the world’s largest democracy, India must be heard—and if it does not communicate itself in a compelling and clarion way, it will be drowned out by other voices. The first few minutes of her remarks, below, are worth watching:
In advancing that “public diplomacy is a public good, for the public good,” she gets towards the definition that I will use in approaching this project.
