Funds crunch in way of recast of cultural diplomacy

NEW DELHI: India is recasting its cultural diplomacy, but a funds crunch may put a spanner in the works.
For the first time, India has got a record number of 1000 Afghans who have got scholarships to study in India. With this, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), MEA’s cultural diplomacy arm, now has almost 6000 students from different countries engaged in higher studies in India. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met a fresh group of foreign students on Maulana Azad’s birth anniversary, describing them as India’s ambassadors in their countries.
ICCR is in the process of evolving from being a “song-and-dance” division, accused in the past of supporting cronyism and patronage, into a more empowered arm of MEA’s public diplomacy.
India’s soft power was being driven by its economic growth. But all that crashed after 2008. Almost 85 chairs for India studies were created, new cultural centres conceived and opened. But as budgets did not grow, they took a hit in the last couple of years. Even this year has seen a 10% cut. The sinking of the rupee had a huge effect because all outlays were in Indian currency, but payments were in international hard currency.
In the last year, India shut down almost 20 chairs in different universities across the world. This started well before the new government came to power. To save the ones that are still there, ICCR moved to a public-private model for 80 chairs – which basically means that the Indian government pays for part of the cost and the rest is raised from either the host institution or country or the private sector. For instance, the India chair in Lagos Business School is supported by Exim Bank.
India even shut down cultural centres in Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Toronto among others. The cultural extravaganzas are taking a more financially sustainable route. ‘India by the Nile’, a 19-day festival in Egypt was a huge success. It was professionally managed by a private sector organization and ticketed. “Temples, Forts and Palaces: 2000 Years of Indian Architecture”, hosted at Casa de la India in Madrid from March 13 March to April 30 April, received more than 550 visitors and was part funded by local organisations.
However, there is greater emphasis on students coming to India for higher studies, including giving them a home-stay feel by getting Indian families to host some foreign students during festivals.