Indian Public Diplomacy: A Strategic Future

INDIAN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: A STRATEGIC FUTURE PROJECT LEAD Maya Babla CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS Hend Alhinnawi Jessica Castillo Anna Dawson Jerry Edling Mona El Hamdani Aparajitha Vadlamannati

FEBRUARY 2012

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The India: Inside Out project, and this report, were only possible with the support and sponsorship of the University of Southern California. Many thanks go to the leadership team at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. For sharing their expertise and network, our appreciation goes to Dean Varun Soni, Professor Geoffrey Cowan, Professor Philip Seib, Paul Rockower, Ambassador Kishan S. Rana, Dr. Gokul Mandayam, Dr. Priya Jaikumar, Dr. Sumun Pendakur, and Dr. G. Prabhakar.

A host of leaders across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors in India offered their insight and analysis to our team. We thank them for their candid opinions and for their remarkable hospitality.

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CONTENTS FOREWORD…………………………………………………………………………...1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY……………………………………………………...……2 KEY FINDINGS GOVERNMENT PUBLIC DIPLOMACY………………………………………………..3 DEVELOPMENT…………………………………………………………………….5 CITY DIPLOMACY…………………………………………………………………..7 CITIZEN DIPLOMACY………………………………………………………………9 MEDIA AND INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY………………….11 INDIA-ARAB RELATIONS………………………………………………………….13

STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS…………………………………….……15 APPENDIX A: SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS………………………….……...16

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FOREWORD 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.

Amidst these circumstances, the Public Diplomacy Division in the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, was established in 2006.

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 launched the India: Inside Out project, journeying 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 some of India’s most vibrant metropolises. A full list of the organizations and individuals who participated in our research is available at the end of this document.

Before, during, and after our travels, we shared our findings with people from around the world through the website, www.IndiaPublicDiplomacy.com. This document distills many of the discussions that continue—and we hope, will be continued—in that online forum. It is our goal to raise the volume on these conversations about public diplomacy, and about India today.

Maya Babla, M.P.D. Project Lead India: Inside Out

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Our team’s primary objective was to assess the current Indian public diplomacy strategy. To do so, we sought to understand the roles of various government and civil society actors, and how together, they achieve the internal and external public diplomacy objectives laid out by the Ministry of External Affairs—or where the possibilities to do so might be in the future.

This report outlines our findings in six key areas: government public diplomacy, development, city diplomacy, citizen diplomacy, media, and Indo-Arab relations.

These areas of focus were selected for their breadth, and the significance of each to the field of public diplomacy; however, this document does not purport to be an exhaustive assessment.

What our research did yield, however, were key findings about the way in which the Government of India interacts with Indian civil society, and the gaps between them.

Here, we find opportunities for increased collaboration—smart partnerships—that would have implications not only for public diplomacy, but also for better governance.

We found that Indian civil society is burgeoning. Indians 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. India has begun to see its large population as a tremendous opportunity, and the ramifications for public diplomacy are exciting as well, if it empowers its citizens to serve as citizen diplomats. It is in this area that the Government of India could be doing much more to leverage the strength of its citizenry, both through raising the profile of its citizens as well as by sharing India’s expertise and making international knowledge-sharing and capacity-building a cornerstone of Indian public diplomacy.

It became clear to us that India has much to offer the world besides its economic prowess. Government and non-government, Indians’ work towards solving their country’s challenges is promising. Now is a critical time to share that message with the world—a critical time for Indian public diplomacy. In doing so, India will rightly find its role in world leadership.

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KEY FINDINGS: GOVERNMENT PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

BY APARAJITHA VADLAMANNATI

The Government of India does not have enough manpower.

India has a large bureaucracy but not enough manpower to hear, implement and evaluate new ideas. Currently, there are only enough officers to execute and maintain existing programs.

Public diplomacy is understood by the PD Division, but not necessarily by Parliament.

Creating a cohesive public diplomacy strategy requires all members of government to understand that their actions affect perceptions of India abroad.

India is working to harness the power of one billion.

Ensuring that one billion receive government benefits and protection is difficult, but rather than shy away from the problem, the Indian government seeks innovative solutions to leverage their large population to create ‘one billion strong.’

The Indian government is limited by the number of talented civil servants it accepts each year. As a result, structures that are already in place can be maintained, but there are not enough members to continually monitor and improve upon existing programs. Running a government—a working democracy—requires manpower composed of steadfast, trustworthy, knowledgeable, and concerned citizens committed to public service.

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 discourage several bright, young Indians from joining the legion of public servants.

Additionally—not surprisingly—the Indian Public Diplomacy Division faces one of the same problems that public diplomacy teams face worldwide—answering the question, What is public diplomacy? Unlike many others, India has the unique predicament of implementing two tracks of public diplomacy, internal and external. It is thus all the more important that the PD Division explain what it does to Parliament in order to continue receiving funding and support. Beyond the need to sustain funding, it is important to explain public diplomacy to parliamentarians because they, too, need to be able to conduct themselves in a manner that is conscious of the goals of public diplomacy. For example, a parliamentarian seen in a compromised position promotes the image of a corrupt Indian bureaucracy, which undercuts the efforts of the public diplomacy team. Public diplomacy must be seen as not

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only the responsibility of a handful of civil servants, but as a national effort. Internal support for the activities of public diplomacy can help raise its profile and ease the process of executing programs.

From the outside lens, foreign publics see problems with India such as slow development for the poorest strata; a growing divide between rich and poor; corruption; limited accountability; or inefficient resource distribution. India is a nation of more than one billion people, and it must continue working to leverage the size of its population by developing vocational skills and improving education standards, rather than positioning its large population as a burden. No amount of public diplomacy is sufficient if reality does not reflect the image that is being communicated and projected, and India is on the right track forward.

RECOMMENDATIONS Build public diplomacy into every program.

Each time the government communicates with the public, they need to understand the implications for the perceptions of the government. The practice that when good work is being done it needs to be shared and vocalized is critical to spreading the word about what public diplomacy can do.

Communicate the value of public diplomacy throughout government.

For public diplomacy to be effective, all members of government must understand that they affect how India is seen abroad. Their actions fill in the color to a sketch of what India is – actions provide context to what public diplomacy campaigns communicate.

Collaboration between departments will reduce redundant operations and streamline communication to the public.

Encourage innovation.

Empower and encourage government employees to engage in new ideas. The EGovernance section in the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology is one example of a young, enthusiastic team working in the Indian government, with tremendous ideas for helping India develop. Unfortunately, current parliamentary structures and limitations do not always allow for these ideas to surface.

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KEY FINDINGS: DEVELOPMENT

BY HEND ALHINNAWI

Smart partnerships are key.

The Government of India has begun engaging in a savvy strategy of creating smart partnerships between government agencies and civil society as a means of addressing India’s development challenges.

Development solutions are arising from within India.

An active, vibrant civil society in India plays a key role in development, and must continue to do so in order to meet the unique challenge posed by India’s large population.

India, a country with a population of 1.21 billion, with the majority between the ages of 1524, has an estimated poverty rate of 27.5%. The literacy rate stands at 61%, with a major discrepancy between boys’ and girls’ education. In the past few years, India has experienced an economic boom and has made steady progress towards reducing poverty rates; however, it still ranks low on several key development indicators.

Indians are very engaged and invested in their own development, and understand that the government alone cannot address all the problems in India. At the same time, several government officials expressed the importance of creating smart partnerships between their agencies and organizations working to improve the overall development of India—through education, social work, access, and training—in order to expand their human capital and resources. The creation of these smart partnerships should be considered a priority, and a strategic approach for achieving India’s development goals.

“Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development for any country,” according to India’s National Skills Development Corporation, which operates on a public-private partnership model. India has set a target of skilling 500 million people by 2022. This is a step in the right direction, and suggests that India is taking a proactive approach to addressing its development challenges.

Thus, India is making progress towards its development objectives, and it may be ready to share its knowledge with other developing countries. It is proposed that India will set up its own aid agency to manage and distribute around $11 billion over the next five to seven years, both within India and abroad. India has a tremendous opportunity to provide global leadership in this field.

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RECOMMENDATIONS Engage in smart partnerships.

Government of India should identify key, non-governmental organizations working effectively within the country and support their work through smart partnerships. This means both supporting their development work within India, as well as encouraging international knowledge sharing.

Ensure aid efficiency.

Upon creating the Central Foreign Aid Agency in India, a committee should be set up to ensure proper utilization of all funds allotted and given to the agency. The efficiency of this committee and its proper management of the funds will play a key role in deciding whether or not India can take on a leadership role in the field of international development.

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KEY FINDINGS: CITY DIPLOMACY

BY JESSICA CASTILLO

NGOs are taking the lead in addressing the unique challenges of rapid urbanization.

Non-governmental organizations have been working both independently and collaboratively with the government to address the needs of a rapidly urbanizing population. NGOs such as the Center for Equity Services are working to ensure that the needs of citizens (including education, health, nutrition and shelter) are evaluated and met.

E-governance programs are helping to build citizen trust.

E-governance programs are also being implemented by India to improve citizen participation, inclusion and service outreach. These endeavors are seeing great success by improving public trust in government and enabling citizens to communicate with planners and policymakers.

Cities provide a unique opportunity for international knowledge sharing.

Both E-governance initiatives and NGOs have made dramatic strides toward improving communication with, and inclusion of, all citizens in the urban environment. However, these improvements are rarely shared with the rest of the world, particularly with other cities abroad which may be facing similar circumstances.

India’s cities are some of the largest and most populated in the world. They are diverse, fast paced, and progressive. But they also suffer many of the urban plights of megacities around the world. While this may appear as a weakness to some, it actually presents an interesting diplomacy opportunity. The way in which Indian citizens, NGOs and government actors are addressing the needs of their growing cities, can be regarded as a public diplomacy opportunity and one that has not yet seen its full potential. India’s dual public diplomacy mandate stresses the importance of communication with both domestic and foreign audiences, and cities are perhaps uniquely situated to do both. With this in mind, city diplomacy in India has not yet been completely understood or fully harnessed. However, with the advent of successful endeavors to build citizen trust in government—such as India’s robust e-governance programs—city diplomacy for India can be re-defined as much more than a ceremonial sister city designation, and can utilize all facets of its cities’ actions and successes in order to express policies and future outlooks to those abroad.

For example, Mumbai could develop a project to work with planners in Kibera, Nairobi to implement improvements in slum areas. Cities could also share success stories of urban planning with developed countries via YouTube videos and online workshops to demonstrate the efforts they are making toward improving lives and building a strong nation.

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These accomplishments and partnerships could be furthered by being included in the “IndiAfrica� program created by theIdeaWorks, to focus on creating a better understanding of India through the achievements of its cities, and the effort to share those achievements with other developing nations.

Several organizations indicated that the notion of city diplomacy was somewhat futile because local governments possess little authority and local leaders change frequently. While this may be true, the work that cities conduct and the progress that they have seen provide evidence of Indian achievement and strength. There is a great opportunity to demonstrate India’s proven ability to listen to its citizens and NGOs and collaborate to develop sustainable solutions to urban problems.

RECOMMENDATIONS Increase knowledge-sharing between cities.

To expand on the South-South relationship building that India emphasizes, cities could share ideas with targeted developing countries to increase capacity building through exchanges with city and local program administrators.

Publicize the successes of cities.

Local committees could be formed at the municipal government level to ensure that activities and achievements are being publicized regularly in newsletters, via social media, and press whenever possible. This could be simply to funnel information upward to national public diplomacy authorities or could serve as arms or branches of national PD to share ideas and solutions with other cities abroad.

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KEY FINDINGS: CITIZEN DIPLOMACY

BY ANNA DAWSON

India’s robust civil society is taking the lead in key areas for public diplomacy.

There is an opportunity for the Government of India to leverage the strength of civil society organizations into a larger public diplomacy strategy.

India’s youth are its future.

With such a large youth population, it is imperative to get the youth involved in citizen diplomacy efforts.

Indian civil society is already working to help change attitudes between communities, create mutual understanding, improve child education, and increase urban development. The work that these groups have done and will continue to do can make up for the lack of peoplepower in the Indian PD Division that limits its outputs. The Indian government can help create a better environment for its own public diplomacy efforts by supporting the “unofficial” citizen diplomacy already occurring.

It seems that many organizations in India are conducting citizen diplomacy without being aware that their efforts are, in fact, citizen diplomacy. There is a disconnect between what these organizations are doing and how it relates to Indian public diplomacy as a whole.

There is a need to make the organizations that are already doing valuable work become aware that their actions contribute to a broader image of India as a whole. Recognizing and engaging with these civil society organizations can be beneficial to both the government and these groups.

India’s youth population represents a particularly important segment of potential citizen diplomats. In our conversation with students at Gitam University, they characterized themselves and their peers as feeling a responsibility to serve their communities and India as a whole. They tackle issues that range from homelessness to illiteracy to the environment, and suggested that this attitude of service continues as they enter their professional lives.

Thus, Indian youth are invested in the development of their country and are aware of their role on the global stage. If given the opportunity—whether sponsored to study abroad, attend a global conference for young leaders, or hosted in a foreign city while doing an internship—youth like these would be ideal citizen diplomats for India.

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RECOMMENDATIONS Celebrate Indian citizens.

An effective and cost-efficient way that the PD division can incorporate citizen diplomacy into the larger public diplomacy discourse is to have an annual citizen diplomacy award given to an outstanding person or team of people whose work enhances the image of India abroad. The award can help build a trend around groups acknowledging that what they are doing is a part of Indian public diplomacy and citizen diplomacy, and to expand on their efforts as such.

Share Indians’ expertise.

The PD Division already has a successful speaker series, but currently, it is primarily former diplomats who are invited to speak. The PD Division can build on the speaker series and expand it to have civil society leaders featured. Broadening the program in this way could also expand the dialogue around citizen diplomacy and about public diplomacy as a whole.

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KEY FINDINGS: MEDIA AND INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

BY JERRY EDLING

There is a robust, but inwardly-focused, media environment in India.

Media in India are robust, thriving and largely directed at a diverse domestic audience.

India does not have a global media outreach analogous to BBC World News, DWTV and CCTV. Radio is a somewhat restricted medium.

While television and print outlets are free-wheeling, radio stations are constricted by a prohibition against news programming and burdensome licensing fees.

India is not perceived as having a free media.

India’s efforts to brand itself as the world’s largest democracy are hampered by its characterization as “partly free” in Freedom House’s “Freedom of the Press” and “Freedom on the Net” findings.

India’s media in some ways reflect their counterparts in other democracies around the world but are in other respects unique. At a time when newspapers in many nations are contracting, consolidating and shedding staff, India’s newspaper market is said to be the largest in the world, with more than 100 million copies sold each day, and advertising revenues have grown precipitously. More than 500 television channels are in operation in India, of which 80 are news channels. Conversely, radio, the medium with perhaps the most potential to reach some of the more rural regions of the country, remains highly regulated, and no news is permitted on community radio stations and other private news outlets.

Community radio is plagued by lack of funding, due in part to regulatory restrictions; and the expensive licensing fees private radio stations encourage consolidation, which limits diversity. While Freedom House characterizes India as “free” in its most recent “Freedom in the World” report, it describes the country as only “partly free” in “Freedom of the Press” and “Freedom on the Net.” This perception is felt at a domestic level, too; in a recent Times of India poll, 10% of Indian respondents cited ‘attempts to muzzle freedom of expression’ as the biggest threat to Indian democracy. Amendments to the Information Technology Act have in some cases constricted content, although those measures have been the subject of robust and free debate and have, in some cases, been overturned. New entrants to the cybercafé market have been slowed by burgeoning licensing restrictions.

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While India’s media and information and communication technology sectors are active and sophisticated, they are largely directed at populations inside the country. This orientation is certainly understandable, given the heterogeneity of India’s makeup, but it results in missed opportunities for powerful public diplomacy.

RECOMMENDATIONS Establish a global news service.

India should establish an independent, non-partisan global news service on the scale of BBC World News, Xinhua and DW-TV, focusing first on areas that are important hubs of the Indian diaspora, such as East Africa and the Gulf states. Such a news service could have the dual purpose of increasing the prominence of India’s perspectives on world affairs and providing much-needed information to underserved areas, particularly in the Global South.

Encourage journalistic ethics.

India should collaborate internationally to establish active exchange programs for journalism students with a particular emphasis on ethics and the challenges posed by changing technologies.

Enable radio to succeed.

India should allow and encourage community radio stations and other private radio ventures to broadcast news and develop active public affairs programming. In an effort to encourage diversity in media ownership, India should reduce the costs of licensing fees and create other sources of funding that do not make entry into the radio market prohibitively expensive.

Keep online censorship at bay.

India should continue to take steps to ensure that its constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech extend to the Internet and eliminate licensing requirements for cybercafés.

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KEY FINDINGS: INDIA-ARAB RELATIONS

BY MONA EL HAMDANI

The relationship between India and the Arab world is based on economic interests.

Indo-Arab relations evolve mainly around preserving economic interests with little effort towards strengthening and promoting social and cultural ties through public diplomacy programs. Strong cultural, religious, and social ties bring Indians and Arabs together, but governments from either side are not proactive about using these ties in their diplomatic efforts to strengthen relations in this way.

India is offering its expertise to a post-revolution Arab world.

India is trying to engage itself with certain Arab countries that witnessed recent revolutions through promoting the idea of “India as the world’s largest democracy� and offering to share its experience and savoir-faire. However, India is not proactive about publicizing this approach through the Arab media.

Regarding its relationship with the Arab World, India distinguishes between two levels of relations. The first level is with Arab Gulf countries with which India shares very strong economic and trade relations in addition to religious, social and cultural ties. The second level, less strong, is with the rest of the Arab countries with which India mainly shares religious, cultural, and social ties. Relations between India and the Arab World, mainly Gulf Countries, are expected to get stronger because India relies on these countries for getting energy resources and they rely on India for labor. In spite of this interdependence, the governments of both parties do not pay enough attention to taking these relations to a more meaningful level, in which they not only focus on preserving and promoting economic and trade ties, but also focus on strengthening and promoting social, cultural and religious ties.

Moving in this direction will only benefit the two parties and open new ways for more meaningful and fruitful partnership in different fields. This call for action to both Arab and Indian governments is based on the fact that bilateral and multilateral relations cannot thrive solely on one relational aspect, be it purely economic or political. Ignoring the other areas they share may lead the countries to develop a very narrow view towards each other, limiting opportunities for further cooperation and potentially contributing to creating friction because of the lack of mutual understanding and open dialogue.

India shares a number of cultural, social and religious ties with the Arab World. Islam is one of the common denominators that shape the life and culture of the majority of Arabs as well as a large number of Indians. Millions of Indians work and live in a number of Arab countries, constituting more than 40% of the active work force of certain Gulf States. This has a significant impact on influencing the local culture and introducing Indian ways of life in a number of Arab states. Bollywood, for example, brings the Indian culture closer to the hearts of large Arab audiences.

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These common denominators and cultural bridges are unfortunately neglected by the governments of both parties and are even taken for granted. Officials do not see the need nor feel the urge to use these common denominators for the conduct of productive public diplomacy efforts. The current cultural and social initiatives remain shy and mediocre and do not go hand in hand with the advanced economic initiatives, partnerships and agreements between India and the Arab World. Currently, there are numerous political and economic issues that cause seasonal friction between India and certain Arab states, notably issues related to immigration, human rights and the establishment of a free trade agreement. Paying more attention and investing more rigorously on meaningful public diplomacy activities between the two parties can significantly contribute in reducing these tensions and opening more opportunities for Indian-Arab partnerships.

In light of the Arab revolutions, India took a very impressive and unprecedented approach to mark its presence among Arab masses. India is using its image as well as its expertise as the world’s largest democracy to engage with the new reality that Arab revolutions have brought to the regional scene. India is presenting its unique model and is willing to share its experience and savoir-faire in the field of democracy with the Arab states that are struggling to reconstitute their governments. By doing so, India provides these Arab states with an alternative model that is totally different than the American and European models, which many Arabs are skeptical about. This presents a great opportunity for both India and Arab states such as Tunisia and Egypt, to build strong partnerships and open new channels of dialogue. However, this Indian initiative is not highly visible in either Arab states or in India, and if promoted more aggressively and picked up by Arab media, it could represent a tremendous new relationship between India and the Arab world.

RECOMMENDATIONS Use the diaspora.

Large Indian diaspora communities in a number of Arab states can be assets, helping promote social and cultural ties. If proactively engaged by the Government of India, these communities—who are already sharing Indian culture abroad—could serve as powerful citizen diplomats.

Increase media visibility.

Publicizing initiatives such as the one India is taking regarding the Arab revolutions will demonstrate India’s commitment to the Arab world in a new and powerful way.

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STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS Engage in smart partnerships.

The Government of India has already engaged in several public-private partnerships with success. Given the strength of Indian civil society, this is a savvy strategy, and one that can be more aggressively pursued, specifically as it relates to meeting India’s development objectives. Identify key, non-governmental organizations working effectively within India and support their work through smart partnerships to strengthen programs in education and gender equity and to provide access to basic needs, proper nutrition, and vocational training.

Increase international knowledge-sharing and capacity building.

Where India innovates and leads, it should share its expertise. Bringing India’s knowledge in areas like e-governance, democracy-building, and conflict transformation to other countries will build powerful relationships. Rather than concentrating efforts on promoting an image of India, promote ‘Brand India’ through actions. India’s priority is on building South-South relations. Rather than merely depending on channeling aid monies to other countries—largely a political gesture—India has a unique opportunity to emerge a leader in the developing world by genuinely approaching other countries with the intention of sharing its own experiences and best practices, and collaborating to find solutions.

Enable Indians to serve as citizen diplomats.

India’s population can be its greatest public diplomacy asset, if it empowers its citizens to serve as citizen diplomats. This means taking a more aggressive approach to inclusive development, particularly gender equity. It means undertaking a comprehensive strategy that includes traditional development tools like education, but also non-traditional means like programs that foster young women leaders and supporting media programs that promote inclusion, diversity, and cultural tolerance.

Re-orient the PD Division such that it works to publicize the good works of Indian citizens, rather than solely promoting government initiatives.

Maximize the strength of Indian civil society by raising the international profile of individuals and organizations that are leading in their fields. Support them by sending them to international conferences, encourage them to engage in professional exchanges, and invite them to share their experience with others throughout India. By doing so, these actors will have an incentive to collaborate with the PD Division.

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APPENDIX A: SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS Week 1: New Delhi Monday, December 12 • Navdeep Suri, Joint Secretary & Head of Public Diplomacy Division, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India • Ambassador Mohamed Sultan Abdalla Al Owais, UAE Ambassador to India Tuesday, December 13 • Abhishek Singh, Director of E-Governance in the Department of Information, Government of India • Rachel Firestone, education expert, followed by a tour of a school for homeless and atrisk boys • Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament, Government of India Wednesday, December 14 • Michael Pelletier, Public Affairs Officer, US Embassy New Delhi • Harsh Mander, social activist, writer, and Director of Centre for Equity Studies Thursday, December 15 • Sudhir Horo, Co-Founder, India! Future of Change campaign at theIdeaWorks • Manjri Sewak, Head of Conflict Transformation Programs, and Seema Kakran, Assistant Director of Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace Friday, December 16 • Sashwati Banerjee, Executive Director of Sesame Workshop India Weekend trip to Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh Saturday, December 17 • Gitam University students, School of Management • Staff of Green Vision, a USAID-funded NGO Week 2: Mumbai Monday, December 19 • Sam Harvey, Director, British Council Mumbai • Safeena Hussein, Executive Director, Educate Girls Tuesday, December 20 • Anita Rajan, General Manager, Tata Consulting Services and Deputy Advisor to the Prime Minister for the National Council on Skills Development • Rahul Balyan, Head of Digital Initiatives, Radio Mirchi Wednesday, December 21 • Public Diplomacy officers at US Consulate, Mumbai Indian Public Diplomacy: A Strategic Future

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