Lack of funding, coordination hurt India’s soft power strategy, says panel

Despite India’s rich history and unrivaled cultural diversity, the country remains hampered by the lack of a comprehensive soft power strategy, said the Parliamentary standing committee on external affairs. 

“In contrast to economic and military power, which is dependent on payoffs and coercion, soft power works through attraction and co-optation,” noted the standing committee by way of defining soft power. 

In its latest report, the committee finds that New Delhi has not invested in a wide ranging review of international soft power strategies. While the Ministry of External Affairs has studied international best practices of countries like the United States, the UK, China and Japan, it is yet to put together a comprehensive statement detailing India’s soft power strategy. Although the MEA had agreed on the need to draft the same in 2016, discussions with stakeholders have not yet materialised into a concrete document. 

The lack of a strategy points to other key problems. Thus far, India’s diplomats and government agencies have not been able to develop a matrix to assess the effectiveness of New Delhi’s cultural diplomacy efforts. Given the often intangible impact soft power has on a country’s international standing, developing concrete metrics for performance has been a challenge. 

However, other pressing challenges also haunt New Delhi’s effort on this front. First, securing adequate funding has been a key concern for government agencies. 

“China is estimated to spend about US$ 10 billion a year just on its Confucius Institutes and

soft power promotion whereas ICCR and other agencies put together spend around 300-400

crores. Most of India’s expenditure goes in establishment and administration,” reads the standing committee’s report. 

The British Council, which handles much of the UK’s cultural diplomacy, receives a grant of £179 million besides its substantial sources of income, the committee noted. To step up India’s efforts, the committee recommended a minimum 20% hike in the budget of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). 

Government organisations also face a serious shortage of talent. MEA representatives admitted that finding and inducting trained personnel into the government has been a challenge. Bureaucrats, they submitted, were not always the right pick for cultural diplomacy. 

Finally, India’s efforts at building soft power have been bedevilled by coordination problems between government agencies. MEA representatives noted that bodies ranging from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sport to the ICCR were conducting separate international outreach activities. While joint brainstorming sessions have been held by the NITI Aayog, the development of joint Coordination Committee to promote collaboration among government agencies has been lacking.