ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the government's deliberate actions undertaken to utilise India's soft power for advancement of its national interests. It examines five specific soft power tools, policies and activities of state authorities, developed in the last two decades, in pursuit of foreign policy. These include public diplomacy, economic diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, development cooperation policy and relations with its diaspora. The chapter analyses major soft power tools employed by the Indian government to increase its global attractiveness and shape opinions and preferences in other countries. A major tool of soft power, which aims to engage, inform and influence foreign public in order to gain support, sympathy and goodwill for a country's foreign policy, is public diplomacy. Culture has been natural tool of diplomacy for centuries, as is well illustrated in a custom of gifts and cultural artefacts exchange by emissaries of ancient kingdoms across continents. Foreign aid is another example of India's rising soft power capabilities.
