Indian Gastrodiplomacy to Help Feed Perceptions of an Emergent India

               As an emergent India is asserting itself within the ever-evolving global power dynamic, India is having a vibrant discussion about public diplomacy and nation-branding, and how to engage in channels of public diplomacy as a means to project its emergence; now is the perfect time for India to start cooking up a gastrodiplomacy campaign.

   Public diplomacy works to communicate culture and values to foreign publics; gastrodiplomacy uses culinary delights to appeal to global appetites, and thus helps raise a nation's brand awareness and reputation.

As this author previously noted in this fair site, Thailand was the first to engage in gastrodiplomacy as foreign policy, while South Korea and Taiwan have also been cooking up culinary diplomacy of late. Meanwhile, Malaysia has been conducting a dynamic Malaysian Kitchen for the World gastrodiplomacy campaign that has combines elements of culinary and cultural diplomacy by showcasing its cuisine and culture in nightmarkets set up in London, New York and Los Angeles.

Indian Gastrodiplomacy

India is a natural spot to conduct gastrodiplomacy ("Samosa Diplomacy"), as India's mark on global cuisine is profound. It was the quest for India's spice bounty flavored the European age of exploration and sent intrepid navigators sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to reach India's shores. As Shashi Tharoor noted, today in Great Britain -- the isle that once considered India to be her crown jewel -- Indian curry houses employ more workers in the UK than the iron, steel, coal and shipbuilding industries combined.

In an age of increasing obesity and heart disease in the West as related to Western diets, as well as diseases outbreaks like BSE, E. coli and salmonella that have plagued meat supplies, India's more healthy vegetarian diet could be a source of soft power for India. India would be wise to take the advice of Beatles legend and vegetarian enthusiast Paul McCartney, and declare an "International Vegetarian Day."

Yet so much of what passes for Indian food abroad stems from its northern Punjabi cuisine. India would be wise to start promoting the delicious and fresh cuisines that are found in its southern regions like the banana-leaf sadya thalis with its delectable coconut chutneys, idlys (lentil cakes) and vadas (donut fritters) or the rice and black lentil crepe dosa stuffed with masala potatoes and onions.

Meanwhile, India would be smart to promote the delicacies that are found at a more local level.Indian street food never seems to make its way to Western palates, which have sadly been missing out on the multitudes of dishes that local Indians savor. Also, it is culinary fare that is often a bit more posh and pricey. The hearty, cheap and delicious street food treats like chole (fiery chickpea curry) with puri (fried bread), aloo tikki (potato croquettes stuffed with spices and served with mint, tamarind and yogurt) and a multitude of various savory chaat snacks.

And what is dinner without dessert? Indian sweets like the immaculate barfi (condensed milk squares), kulfi (sweet, creamy traditional Indian ice cream) and the delectable gulab jamun (fried dough balls swimming in rosewater syrup) could all be after-dinner favorites for an Indian gastrodiplomacy campaign. Of course, such would go well with a cup of India's famous spiced tea -- the sweet, milky and gingery chai.

In Delhi, the Indian Ministry of Tourism -- in collaboration with a variety of other ministries and tourist boards, helps host the popular tourist destination Dilli Haat, a rural market-style center to showcase Indian crafts and cuisine from all across India's varied 28 states. Such efforts should be distilled into a traveling cultural diplomacy campaign sent abroad, much like the innovative Malaysian night market initiative, to bring wide-ranging examples of Indian cuisine and culture to wider global audiences. When culinary diplomacy is combined with cultural diplomacy, it is at its most successful as it engages all the senses.

Indian cuisine has always been an informal part of Indian public and cultural diplomacy; what is required today is a more focused use of gastrodiplomacy in its public diplomacy efforts. As India is conducting public diplomacy and cultural outreach campaigns, like the immaculate India Callingevent in Los Angeles or the wildly successful Maximum India festival in Washington, DC, to introduce global audiences to the cultural reality of an emergent India, it is also time for India to engage in more robust gastrodiplomacy to raise the cultural awareness for all of India's cuisine heritage.

A gastrodiplomacy diplomacy campaign could help raise Indian brand awareness, spur tourism and introduce global diners to the authentic Indian palate. A bit of digestive diplomacy is just the dish to help pique global interest and appetites in the new India.

Paul Rockower is a gastronomist and graduate of the Master's of Public Diplomacy program at the University of Southern California. Rockower works as a Public Diplomacy Guru with INDIA Future of Change, an organization that conducts Indian public diplomacy and nation branding. 

Don't Copy if you can't PASTE

A popular motivational speaker was entertaining his Audience. He Said:

"The best years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who wasn't

my wife!" The audience was in silence and shock. The speaker added :

"And that woman was my mother!" 

Laughter and Applause!!! 

A week later, a top manager trained by the Motivational speaker tried to

crack this very effective joke At home. He was a bit foggy after a

drink. He said loudly to His wife who was preparing dinner, "The

greatest years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who was not

my Wife!" The wife went; "ahhhh!" with shock and rage.

Standing there for 20 seconds trying to recall the second Half of the

joke, the manager finally blurted out "...and I can't remember who she

was!" 

By the time the manager regained his consciousness, he was on a hospital

bed nursing burns from boiling water. 

Moral of the story... 

Don't Copy if you can't PASTE

Dedicated to all one sided lovers .....Engineering Students

I won't bombard u with sentiments..:)..this is a story of a final year who has tried everything on his self-proclaimed love. ;)

And now he is saying.....

मुश्किल है अपना मेल प्रिये, ये प्यार नहीं है खेल प्रिये|

तुम mechanical की नहली हो, मैं mineral Dep का सत्ती हूँ...

तुम Intel Chip Processor हो, मैं जन्मजात ही बत्ती हूँ|

तुम्हे आदत CCD की, मैं मेस की रोटी खाता हूँ...

तुम फैशन Queen कैम्पस की, मैं कभी-कभार नहाता हूँ|

तेरे चाहने वाले सैकड़ों हैं, मेरे Wingi मेरी उड़ाते हैं..

मुझे Block किया है लोगों ने, तुझे खोज के Friend बनाते हैं|

तुम srijan की भाँती पोपुलर, मैं dep.-freshers के जैसा हूँ,

तुम Foreign training की Stipend हो, मैं Paid Intern का पैसा हूँ|

तुम Rajdhani की AC , मैं main building का पंखा हूँ....

तुम स्वर्ग की भांति दर्शनीय , मैं दहन के बाद की लंका हूँ|

मैं यहाँ के प्रोफ का Lecture हूँ, तुम Top सर्च हो DC की..

मैं Chewtiyon का बकर हूँ, तुम Clge idol pratibimb की |

तुम batch top karne ka celebration, मैं Endsem की रात हूँ...

तुम G.Sec की हो प्रोपोसल, मैं kartavya Volunteer की बात हूँ|

मैं छेदी का टिंकू, तुम Truffle Sundae CCD की..

मैं B.C. Session से बेदखल, तुम नयी सी Topic GD की|

तुझे देख log खुश हो जाते,

मुझे देख "WHAT THE HELL" प्रिये....

अब.................

मुश्किल है अपना मेल प्रिये, ये प्यार नहीं है खेल प्रिये..

P.S.- No offenses Junta. :)...Inspired frm sumones wall..but a small editing by me.:P

yaaro ab to jana hai.....

yaaaro,ab to jana hai,

lagata  hai abhi to kal hi aaye the,

kuch sapne apne.. kuch paraye the,

kuch sach hai ...kuch fasana  hai,

yaaaro, ab to jana hai....

ankho me thodi udaaasi hai,

kuch jayenge bichud,thodi si mayoosi hai,

lekin naye sapno ki udaan  hai

zindgi ka naya taraana hai

yaaro ab to jana  hai...

jaise bhi  the  yeh din baade yaad  ayenge

kcuh tum logo ki dhundhli yaade chor jayenge

waquat gaya sochne ka

kya khoyenge kya payenge

ab to bas un yaado ko dil basana hai...

yaaro ab to jana  hai...

bahut se dost mile  ..

kuch  zigri yaar mile....

clg ki har  junior me..

hamko sachcha pyar mile..

internal ka panga,,practical ka parcha

marks hame kam har baar mile..

phir bhi ab to muskrana hai

yaaro ab to jana hai...

dekhta hu  jab me sochta hu ye

kal tak tha jo naya ,aj puarana hai...

dil to chahta nahi ki choru  tujhe..

lekin nayei zindgi,nayi duniya ko jana hai..

naye par khulenge naye aasmano me

yeh bhi pata nahi ki aage

looh ke thapede ya mausam suhana hai

yaaro, ab to jana hai.......

yaaaro ab to jana  hai....

Why the poor want to stay very poor ...????

                 Poverty has declined from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 32% in 2009-10, according to preliminary Planning Commission estimates based on consumption surveys of the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). Some welcome the news; others complain that fast growth has not reduced poverty fast enough. Still others, notably economist Surjit Bhalla, pour scorn on the data, and imply these have been fudged to exaggerate poverty.
      I agree that the poverty data are wrong, but not because they have been fudged. Rather, poor people are increasingly lying to surveyors about their true living standards, and this is inflating apparent poverty.
          Devesh Kapur, Lant Pritchett and other researchers cite a telling example of this in a research survey last year on the conditions of dalits in Uttar Pradesh. The researchers hired local facilitators to assist the survey. Answering questions, one dalit claimed to be badly off. But as the questions proceeded, the facilitator realized that the person proposed for marrying his cousin was this dalit's son. On discovering this, the dalit declared he was actually well off, and had lied about being poor to ensure he did not lose access to subsidies! He jumped from understatement to overstatement in a trice.
           Poor people respond to incentives like anybody else. When surveys started some decades ago, the poor probably told the truth, since they did not think this would hurt them. But over the decades, the government has started targeting subsidies more sharply at those below the poverty line (BPL). Till the late 1990s, there was a single subsidized price for all food grains at ration shops, but after that, an especially low price was decreed for BPL folk. BPL targeting is used for other entitlements, such as job cards under NREGA.
          In such circumstances, it is absurd to expect that people who rise above the poverty line will admit this to surveyors, and risk losing their benefits. A significant proportion will understate their consumption. So, surveys will capture less and less of what people really consume.
          Is this happening? Yes, indeed. Back in 1972-73, consumption measured by the NSSO surveys amounted to 87% of consumption estimated by national accounts (which measure GDP). But this proportion of consumption captured by the NSSO has steadily declined over the years, fell to just 48.8% in 2005-06, and further to an all-time low of 43% in the latest 2009-10 survey.
          Leftists claim that this is entirely because the rich are hiding their consumption to evade the taxman, and that the consumption of the poor is accurately captured. Phooey! Income tax rates have crashed from 97.75% to 30%, wealth tax has been abolished and the use of white money has improved substantially in real estate transactions since 1972-73. In every way, the rich have less incentive to hide their consumption today, while the poor have more incentive.
         GDP data show Indian consumption rising fast. But NSSO data show consumption rising slowly. Bhalla calculates that in the two years between 2007-08 and 2009-10, NSSO data shows consumption plummeting 7%, as calamitous a fall as during the Great Depression!
          This is plainly fiction. We all know that GDP and consumption kept rising, with new cell phone connections increasing by 15 million per month. Explanation: the NSSO captured 47% of consumption in 2007-8 but only 43% of consumption in 2009-10.
          Let's return to the official poverty estimates, warts and all. A new poverty line has been adopted based on the Tendulkar Committee recommendations. According to this new formula, poverty declined from 45.3% in 1993-94 to 37.2% in 2004-05, a decline of 0.73 percentage points per year. In the next five years to 2009-10, poverty declined by 1.04 percentage points per year. This is a significant improvement, though it looks too low in an era of fast growth. But remember, there was a major drought in 2009-10, which would have depressed consumption below trend.
          Besides, a better way of judging poverty reduction is to ask what proportion of the poor rose above the poverty line between the start and end of the period. Measured in this way, poverty reduction between 1993-94 and 2004-05 was 1.65% per year, and improved to 2.8% per year in the next five years to 2009-10. This is a big gain even without adjusting for undercounting of consumption. That's welcome news.
           In any event, we need to adjust the poverty estimates for the falling proportion of consumption captured by NSS surveys. There is no space in this column to go into the statistical issues involved. But some statistical changes are necessary to bring the NSSO data closer in line with reality.

Fear has ability to numb senses

          Strange as it may sound, sometimes the eye cannot register what it sees. Or the ears do not hear the sounds they listen to. There are many surprises and contradictions in our sensory perceptions which we should understand as we get older. For example, one would expect several eyewitness accounts of the same incident to concur on all aspects. But talk to any criminal investigator and you would be surprised at the amount of variance that emerges from such eyewitness reports when under trauma.

The victim of a mugging, it has been found, generally perceives the person who assaulted him to be larger and more menacing than he actually is. That is because the mind of the victim, out of fear, already has conjured up that vision while the incident is underway, overriding the images that are streaming in from the lens of his eyes. It is a time when reality — as seen through his eyes — has been relegated to the backseat by his mind. Similarly, people in an earthquake always believe that their harrowing experience lasted more than it actually did.

One can understand that human powers of observation become suspect when under traumatic conditions. But the sad aspect is that in many cases, our powers of observation are compromised for long periods in normal times. That is because we choose to see only what we wish to see and choose to hear what we want to hear.

What I am talking about is that even a standard reply by someone will elicit different responses from us at different times; depending on our mindset and how we wish to interpret the signal. For example, if you are extremely upset with your son for whatever reason, even if he would genuinely ask you how you are when you returned from a walk, you are likely to snap at him and perhaps tell him it was none of his business! That same question in the same tone would, at better times, be answered with a lot of warmth and affection.

Why the change in your response? The answer to that lies in yourself; it was your mental condition of being upset that triggered off a negative response in the earlier example. And that is so true in all our responses; they depend on our state of mind at that point of time.

It does not deserve any great insight to see the irrationality of such behaviour and decide that we must make amends and change such an attitude. Every response of ours must be independent of our mental makeup at that point in time and should be on its own merit.

And while the benefits to the people we deal with are apparent, it also has a lot of advantages for ourselves. For starters, we will not be misunderstood. Nor will we be manipulated. Because if the people around you know you are a person of moods, they can play the game to their own advantage as well!

                                                                                                  - Anupam Kher

Infosys Tech to be renamed as Infosys Ltd

                In tandem with leadership succession plan and move to transform the company into a next-generation global player in IT arena, Infosys Technologies on Saturday said it will be renamed as Infosys Ltd.

Co-Chairman-designate S Gopalakrishnan said that Infosys has a broad range of services all the way from consulting to business process outsourcing and the company's focus is to help clients achieve business results.

"We felt that the brand Infosys is so strong that we would like to rename the company as Infosys Ltd," Gopalakrishnan said.

"It's part of our 3.0 vision...", he said.

The company in a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange said that the "Board of Directors approved the proposal of changing the name of the company from Infosys Technologies to Infosys Ltd".

The company will seek shareholders' approval on the proposal at its Annual General Meeting on June 11, 2011.

Noting that Infosys is already a respected global brand, the CEO-designate SD Shibulal said, "our aspiration is to build the next generation global consulting and services corporation".

The proposed Infosys 3.0 strategy would have three dimensions including strengthening the company's strategic partnership with its clients and evolving its business model, Shibulal said.

"..we are also making other organisational changes to strengthen our market position and ability to serve our clients better," he said.

Officials said the Board had also decided to raise the retirement age for chairman of the company from 65 years to 70 years but this would not be applicable to the company's founders.

Shifting from its usual practice of naming founders as Chairman, the company on Saturday announced the appointment of former CEO of ICICI Bank KV Kamath as its new Chairman.

The board has also named current Chief Executive Officer S Gopalakrishnan as co-chairman, while COO S D Shibulal has been elevated as the CEO.

Infosys: KV Kamath named chairman, SD Shibulal to be CEO

          Former CEO of ICICI Bank KV Kamath has been named the new chairman of Infosys Technologies to succeed NR Narayana Murthy. The decision came after a swift board meeting in Bangalore.

Mr Murthy, the current chairman, will be chairman emeritus post his retirement on Aug 20, 2011, when he completes 65 years. The board has also appointed current chief operating officer (COO) SD Shibulal as the new CEO and MD effective 21 August, 2011. Mr Shibulal will succeed S Gopalakrishnan, the current CEO and MD, who has been elevated to the post of co-chairman.

Mr Murthy said there was lots of discussions in the nominations committee but there was unanimous opinion that we need to strengthen both aspects...customer employee connect and our adherence to world class governance.

“I am pleased with all three appointments… I have known Vaman or KV Kamath very well...I have known him for 40 years," Mr Murthy said. Mr Kamath is a well-known figure among India Inc. He was the CEO and MD of India's largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank, for 13 years. Currently he serves as the non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of ICICI Bank Limited.
          On the newly appointed CEO SD Shibulal, Mr Murthy said, "Shibulal had a wonderful career at Infosys...I have known him for 32 years...before we founded Infosys...He has exceeded the expectations of the board as COO." Shibulal is one of the co-founders of Infosys Technologies Limited. Shibu, as he is fondly called, is known for his love for gadgets. According to 2011 Forbes ranking, Shibu is India's 48th richest billionaire with a net worth of $1.1 billion.
          Infosys' chief executive officer and managing director S Gopalakrishnan, chief operating officer S.D. Shibulal and senior VP and chief financial officer V Balakrishnan were among the company officials who were present in the board meet. S. Gopalakrishnan (Kris to his colleagues) is one of the founders of Infosys Technologies Limited. In January 2011, Kris was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third highest civilian honor, by the Government of India.
          TV Mohandas Pai, who resigned from the board recently, was also present in the meeting.

Infosys would also be appointing three new directors before the annual general meeting in June. The major board recast comes at a time when Infosys is facing stiff competitive environment and tough business conditions. The names of Kamath, Gopalakrishnan and Shibulal were recommended by the three-member Nominations Committee, chaired by Jeffrey S Lehman.

       "These three leaders bring together an extraordinary range of talents and experiences with a united commitment to drive the company... We could not be in better hands," Lehman  said.

      A well-known personality in the corporate circles, Kamath was the key driving force in the success of ICICI Bank. "I feel greatly honoured to have been asked to be the Chairman of Infosys by the board of directors and accept this responsibility with a deep sense of humility," Kamath said.

        One of the co-founders, Kris Gopalakrishnan has been Infosys CEO since June 2007. Shibulal, another co-founder, is currently the Chief Operating Officer (COO). "We will ensure that this leadership transition is smooth... We are also making other organisational changes to strengthen our market position and ability to serve our clients better," Shibulal said.

         Headquartered in Bangalore, Infosys has 64 offices and 63 development centres across the US, the UK, China, Australia and Japan, among other countries. The company and its subsidiaries had a workforce of 1,30,820 employees as of March 31, 2011. 

Infosys - Murthy passes the Infosys baton to KV Kamath

Infosys a brief - Narayana Murthy's successor to be named today