The inclusion of soft power as a pillar of Sapt Dhara for Viksit Bharat 2047, as articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address on August 15, 2026, marks an important shift in India’s development vision. It signals that India’s civilisational endowments are more than sources of international goodwill. They can be developed as strategic assets to showcase creative capabilities, generate economic opportunities, and advance international influence. Fulfilling this vision requires a strategic approach and sustained investment in India’s cultural and creative economy, with particular emphasis on building globally competitive cultural enterprises. This article examines where India’s cultural economy stands today and sets out a roadmap for ecosystem development to transform cultural enterprises into instruments of soft power.
Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye Jr. coined the term soft power to introduce non-coercive means of power into diplomatic discourse. Soft power, wrote Nye in his seminal 1990 essay, ‘tends to be associated with intangible power resources such as culture, ideology and institutions.’[1] In a more recent article published in 2021, Nye argued that ‘soft power depends on the minds of the target audiences’.[2]
Cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are among the most direct ways to reach those minds. CCIs commonly include traditional creative sectors such as crafts, fashion, design, visual arts, cinema, performing arts, publishing, festivals, and tourism, as well as digitally forward industries, including software, gaming, advertising, and content creation. While no single definition applies universally, CCIs sit at the intersection of creative expression, innovation, intellectual property (IP), and commercialisation and distribution, generating economic and cultural value.[3] The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) identifies creative industries as among the most dynamic growth sectors in the global economy, particularly for developing countries.[4]
When exported, CCIs can shape how foreign audiences perceive, experience, and adapt to a country’s culture. Such exports often accompany the sharing of ideas, national values and ethos, and knowledge traditions, which in turn influence people-to-people engagement, consumer demand, and favourability towards that nation. Countries worldwide are focusing on their CCIs by aligning policy priorities, improving access to capital, and investing in infrastructure. By demonstrating domestic capabilities and meeting international consumer demand through cultural and creative products, services, and experiences, an exporting nation can bolster its soft power.
Some of the most successful soft powers today leverage one or more of the resources Nye identified, namely culture, ideology, and institutions, to cultivate influence, attract investment, and build familiarity through their brands. South Korea’s growing cultural clout, the hallyu wave, stems from its pop culture (music, cinema, and television), which spills over into cuisine, beauty, and fashion. The United States has long stood for innovation, free markets, and technological advancement, fostered by its top universities, enterprises, and scientific and government institutions. It is the birthplace of Disney, Netflix, and YouTube, which are among the world’s leading creative economy brands today in terms of revenue, market share, and popularity.[5] Artisanal luxury brands such as Hermès, cultural festivals like Cannes, and museums and institutions such as the Louvre and Alliance Française all help make France the most visited country in the world. As these examples show, cultural and creative brands can generate brand equity, i.e., the value of a brand built through narrative, consumer education, positioning, and strong recall.[6] Enterprises with strong and stable brand equity reinforce the ‘country of origin’ association and subsequently that country’s soft power.
India’s Cultural and Creative Economy
Backed by its rich cultural heritage, growing entrepreneurial talent, and an emerging consumer class with purchasing power and a propensity for cultural consumption, India is well placed to become a leader in the global cultural and creative economy. India’s cultural and creative economy was reported to be worth US$80 billion in 2026, representing 4.3% of total economic output.[7] What remains missing are globally recognised, consumer-facing cultural brands. This is an untapped opportunity for India to establish itself firmly in key markets, both established and emerging, through lifestyle, experiential services, creator and knowledge services, and hospitality.
India’s abundant cultural resources have long enjoyed global appreciation. Textile crafts such as muslin, pashmina, and Kalamkari (chintz) have shaped the fashion vocabularies of the world. India’s knowledge traditions, mathematical discoveries, and the wisdom behind Ayurveda and yoga have led to groundbreaking innovations. Its rich literary heritage, including the Ramayana and Mahabharata, continues to flourish through the performing and visual arts in Southeast Asia. Additionally, India is the world’s largest film producer by volume, has the second-highest number of internet users, has 44 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and is among the youngest and fastest-growing major economies.[8] This tailwind points to the advantage ahead: transforming cultural resources into national assets, creating employment, and generating national wealth. Otherwise, India risks losing authorship of its own heritage in international markets.
The case of yoga offers one of the clearest illustrations of a missed opportunity for India and the need to reverse it through enterprise creation. Practised in virtually every city in the world, yoga is one of India’s strongest soft-power resources in theory and public diplomacy. While establishing the International Day of Yoga was a cultural-diplomacy success, it fell short of capturing yoga’s economic value in the absence of institutional market frameworks. By contrast, the US has invested in research, enterprise support, and brand creation, including meditation apps such as Headspace, athleisure brands such as Alo, and nationwide studios such as CorePower.[9] While India exported the idea and ethos of yoga, it still has market share to capture.
Crafts: Defining Global Luxury
Another sector where India leads in export value is the manufactured and handmade craft and design goods, such as textiles, handicrafts, rugs, and jewellery. For many international luxury houses, India has been a muse and a source of materials. While some brands, such as Louis Vuitton and Christian Louboutin, have openly showcased their inspirations and partnerships with Indian artisans, others have done so more discreetly, sparking conversations about appropriation, transparency, and misrepresentation.
Some of these brands are from France, where the fashion and luxury goods sector alone was estimated to be worth $181 billion in 2022. The French government has emphasised maintaining this competitive edge through dedicated funding for artisanal businesses, talent retention, and the strengthening of French brands’ presence in emerging markets. In addition, city-level cultural economies are preserved and promoted through strict GI norms that protect the names, products, and traditional production methods of regions, such as Dijon and Cognac for food and Grasse for perfumery.[10]
While India’s cultural diversity and crafts remain unparalleled for artisanal skills and material knowledge, they do not enjoy the same level of protection. Official data show that the craft sector employs 6.4 million artisans across 455 categories, 318 of which are GI-tagged.[11] Despite this scale, the sector remains hampered by weak IP protection, limited market incentives, and insufficient funding. Policies that enforce licence use, protect GI-tagged crafts, and establish legal frameworks can turn crafts into one of India’s strongest intellectual property assets.
Alongside this, brand creation can drive compounding value over the long run. Labels such as Sabyasachi, Anita Dongre and Jaipur Rugs are expanding their global footprint and drawing attention to Indian craftsmanship through advertising, storytelling, merchandise creation and cross-platform adaptations. By positioning crafts at a premium, in line with their international counterparts, these enterprises build strong brand value, long-term profitability and consumer appeal. In India, marketplaces such as Swadesh and The Kunj, and brands such as Good Earth, can transform the craft-shopping experience for international travellers. Through curation, product display and storytelling at every touchpoint, these brands showcase artisanal excellence, educate customers and, most importantly, offer high-end products in design and quality, elevating the craft tourism experience.
Creative Artists, Cuisine and Diaspora
The story repeats across cinema, the performing arts, and theatre, where scale at home has not translated into international accolades. While India produces the most films, it does not carry the same global clout as Hollywood. Theatrical performances, concerts by Indian artists, and international film releases remain largely confined to diaspora groups. Sizeable in number and economically affluent, diaspora communities serve as a bridge between India and the world. However, they should not be seen as the sole target consumers for India’s cultural exports. Nations with lasting soft power are those whose appeal is universal. In music, the global fanfare for a Taylor Swift or BTS concert far outpaces that for their Indian contemporaries, whose primary overseas audience remains Indian expats.[12] The former’s success relies on universally recognisable storytelling, merchandise creation, and global partnerships, among other factors built over a sustained period.
A compelling early proof of concept for changing perceptions and increasing demand comes from the culinary space. Two decades ago, Indian food was seen as cheap, greasy, monolithic, low-cost dining for expatriates. Today, Indian chefs and entrepreneurs abroad have successfully built Michelin-starred restaurants such as Tresind in Dubai and have received James Beard recognition for presenting culinary heritage, as with New York-based Semma. Through innovative, world-class dining experiences, they are rewriting India’s gastronomic story.[13] A key driver of this change is collaboration between chefs and entrepreneurs, which makes businesses more resilient to risk and better managed through centralised operations. While privately run restaurant enterprises create bespoke experiences, supportive policies can enable Indian food brands to scale in volume.
Thailand, one of the first nations to launch a dedicated state-led gastrodiplomacy campaign, offers a playbook for India. As part of its ‘Global Thai’ programme, local chefs were trained to open Thai restaurants abroad that catered to global tastes, not just the Thai diaspora. Inter-ministerial coordination ensured financial support for enterprises, visa exemptions for chefs, easier import of local ingredients, and heavy investment in marketing. Integrating tourism, culture, and cuisine into a single brand successfully popularised Thai food, fuelled demand for more outlets, attracted inbound tourism, and boosted Thailand’s soft power.[14] Indian cuisine can also shed its diaspora dependency and become a global phenomenon when supported by conducive policies and backing from private individuals and enterprises.
Virasat, Vikas and Vyapar: A Roadmap for Viksit Bharat 2047
India has no shortage of talent or know-how. The core challenge is the lack of an ecosystem that can elevate cultural and creative professions into a value-driven industry. A deeply interconnected landscape would support businesses through skills training, idea validation, and funding channels. It would set quality standards, establish IP protection frameworks, and implement necessary licensing regulations. Policy and diplomacy would help expand established economic corridors and create new ones. Lastly, resources and talent would come together to shape a narrative across international forums and digital platforms.
A comprehensive framework, in which virasat (heritage) provides creative grounding, vyapar (commerce) creates economic momentum, and vikas (development) drives policy design, will shape the trajectory of Viksit Bharat. A multi-stakeholder approach is needed to cultivate this ecosystem, in which a favourable policy environment, incubatory and entrepreneurial support, and market linkages align to build enterprising capabilities at home and capture global markets through brands, talent and narrative.
Vikas: Building Policy Foundations
Strong policy and institutional support from the government are the first and foremost step for India’s cultural and creative industries to succeed. Given that no single definition applies universally, India must define its own cultural and creative industries. A clear articulation would determine the scope and nature of support CCIs receive. This definition can evolve and should be revisited at regular intervals to assess its relevance, progress, and applicability. A national vision setting out opportunities and targets for India’s CCIs could serve as the guiding framework, along with a comprehensive roadmap for phased implementation. However, the real test of success lies in translating policy into action.
The Indian government is gradually incorporating the cultural and creative economy into its policy agenda, but existing programmes and schemes continue to operate in silos. Furthermore, institutional support, such as the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies for developing the audio-visual, gaming and comics (AVGC) sectors, the National Creators Award and the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES), as well as the emphasis on STEM-based innovation, has tilted the balance towards content creation and digital-first activities. India’s rich tangible and intangible cultural heritage, with immense economic value, still lacks the same infrastructure and policy support.[15]
To address this gap, a nodal agency should be established within the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to give cultural industries – crafts, cuisine, performing arts, puppetry, yoga, Ayurveda, toy-making, etc. – policy priority, a technocratic character, and a unique organisational structure that ensures involvement from both the government and the private sector. India’s cultural industries involve many stakeholders: ministries such as external affairs, culture, textiles, tourism, agriculture, AYUSH, MSME, and urban development; industry bodies; and autonomous think-tanks. Academic institutions such as the Indian Institute of Crafts and Design (IICD) and the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), along with network organisations, festival curators, and museum professionals, also need to participate in decision-making. Most importantly, cultural enterprises, whether supplying other businesses or being consumer-facing, need representation.
A nodal agency would not replace existing cultural preservation efforts but would coordinate them to achieve better, more streamlined outcomes. Placing it within the PMO would give it authority to bring multiple ministries onto a single planning platform. Primarily, the nodal agency would outline the national vision, develop an action plan, and monitor the implementation and performance of schemes related to the CCIs. It would facilitate coordination among the centre, state, and local-level governing bodies, aligning them to meet national goals within a set timeline. The nodal agency would also determine the investments needed for infrastructure development, knowledge creation and documentation, research, and storytelling at the national scale. A key focus should be developing and enforcing strict IP regulations and strengthening existing legal measures, such as trademarks, copyrights, certifications, and GI traceability. To advance soft power through CCIs, the nodal agency, with representation from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), and other relevant institutions, could offer visa relaxations for entrepreneurs seeking to go global.
Tourism offers a clear illustration of what can be achieved when travel, cultural experiences, heritage immersion and hospitality are integrated into a single offering. The 2025-26 Economic Survey noted that while cities worldwide integrate art, music, food and other elements into urban policy, ‘Indian cities remain institutionally hostile to creativity.’[16] Making cities engaging and lively tourism destinations requires investment in transport, hospitality, and basic physical infrastructure, such as visitor facilities, information centres, and signage. Replicating the Kunj model in other states, for instance, and integrating craft brands into India’s official tourism information platforms can create meaningful partnerships that benefit state-wide local craft enterprises and the tourism sector.
Equally important are documentation and archival efforts, data collection, and the creation of world-class experiences through the services offered, whether craft tours in Jaipur and Srinagar, culinary walks in Lucknow, or music festivals in Varanasi and Gwalior. These cities already enjoy UNESCO Creative City recognition, but a development plan involving all stakeholders will ensure better tourism products, culturally relevant marketing, and investment in heritage protection and promotion. While a strong policy foundation benefits the cultural and creative industries as a whole, brand development requires a market-facing approach and sharp business acumen. This is where the private sector and individuals, including corporates, incubators, academia, and industry specialists, can come together to focus on business development and market readiness.
Virasat: Incubating India’s Cultural Brands
Business incubators and accelerators offer mentorship, skills training, access to capital, and networks that increase startups’ chances of success. India’s artisanal sector faces a perception problem: craft enterprises are largely seen as non-profit initiatives rather than scalable, profit-making businesses. The perception is reflected in funding patterns, with only 1 in 10 craft-led MSMEs having easy access to finance.[17] Similarly, despite an uptick in investment value in Ayurveda beauty and personal care (BPC), studies reveal that only 3.4% of companies received funding.[18]
Hybrid incubators that support entrepreneurs with best practices for business growth while offering financial capital that recognises the risks involved and accepts patient returns need to be developed. Cultural entrepreneurs could benefit from low-interest loans, convertible notes, and debt funding. For investors, preferential tax treatment and simpler legal frameworks could encourage more investment in fledgling cultural businesses. The funding apparatus should also encourage philanthropic support, family office investments, and public-private investment funds. DPIIT’s partnership with the Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (ELC) and Nykaa to support a burgeoning BPC startup space should be expanded to include a category dedicated to Ayurveda brands.[19]
Through mentorship, incubators can connect businesses with industry experts, service providers, and freelancers, and support distribution, supply-chain, and manufacturing partnerships. This would reduce capital and operational costs for small businesses. Universities can offer this incubatory support early on, channelling endowments, donations, and academic partnerships into entrepreneurial development. Introducing entrepreneurial development programmes into curricula could offer many benefits. First, they would equip students with pitching skills and an understanding of market realities, preparing them to design real-world solutions. Second, they would support product development by combining faculty’s deep cultural knowledge with industry knowledge gained through practical experience. IICD’s Crafts Business Accelerator Programme is one such example, in which students receive entrepreneurial support to start their own brands or return to family craft, equipped with new techniques, technologies, and better market access. Universities also offer infrastructure such as research labs, co-working spaces, and alumni connections that can support product development and market research.
Beyond capital and mentoring, brands also need marketing, packaging and storytelling support. India has long been a land of storytellers, and the cultural industries have kept this tradition alive. From offline packaging and store curation to online newsletters, social media posts, and partnerships with retailers, vendors and buyers, every detail shapes how brands are perceived and consumed. In today’s cultural economy, filmmakers, campaign builders, brand strategists, curators and creative producers carry that inheritance forward. They help brands translate heritage into modern formats without stripping it of meaning. For storytelling to achieve reach and impact on a global scale, enterprises must take these stories to global markets and harness their potential to connect with consumers.
Vyapar: Tapping into Global Markets
Support at home must be matched by market access abroad, which begins with understanding those markets. This involves learning about cultural norms, local tastes, spending patterns, and regulatory, compliance, and certification requirements. At the same time, understanding market rhythms, such as seasonal demand, buying cycles, and trade calendars, can enable better commercial decision-making. For instance, Jaipur Rugs, one of the world’s largest hand-knotted carpet brands, times its collection launches to align with key cultural events in different international markets, such as design weeks and festivals, an approach that has given it greater visibility, recognition, and partnerships with eminent design houses.
For smaller businesses, conducting independent research into these nuances may be an overhead cost. Establishing research centres within government agencies and autonomous think tanks, and partnering with market research agencies, could provide much-needed strategic consulting across three domains. First, entrepreneurs would learn export requirements and could set pricing, plan market entry, and prepare their supply chains accordingly. Building critical infrastructure for transporting products, extending the shelf life of perishables, reducing transport costs, and preparing for geopolitical and economic uncertainties are important inputs for brands’ supply chain strategy. Second, brand identity, developed through packaging, quality standardisation, communication strategies, and brand positioning, could be tailored to different markets. Finally, research into digital frontiers and the impact of AI on creative production, jobs, and distribution has become equally important for brands’ operations and for entry into new markets. By providing these insights and more, research centres can become trusted sources of information for startups and investors and support policymaking with market-facing data.
With these resources, enterprises will be well placed to target key markets and establish a retail or online presence. Markets with high potential for brand success could include those with large diaspora populations and strong economic ties with India, as well as those that show greater openness and spending potential for new categories. Expos, trade fairs, and bilateral business conventions facilitate buyer-seller meetings and partnerships between Indian entities and large global conglomerates. Initiatives such as Bharat Tex and the One District One Product (ODOP) programme have provided market access and revenue streams for cultural enterprises. Participation in international expos and trade events outside India should also be supported through financial and visa-related assistance. Although slow, the process will build organic discoverability and business traction for promising Indian brands.
Lastly, performance incentive structures must accompany market linkages to ensure enterprises remain accountable for the support they receive and the growth targets they set. Joe Studwell’s concept of export discipline offers a model in which domestic incentives and export targets go hand in hand. In practice, incentives could include export-linked grants for brand development, business tenders, IP registration and trade fair costs, and tax benefits proportional to export earnings. Each could be disbursed in stages against agreed targets, so that continued support depends on performance. While the model is theoretically robust, India needs to develop its own metrics to measure performance and define export success.
Conclusion
Fostering cultural brands through an ecosystem approach and integrating them into the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision requires time-bound strategies and astute execution across the depth and breadth of the cultural industries. A comprehensive policy design that encourages innovation, offers protection, and sets an ambitious development target; a robust ecosystem that augments India’s cultural footprint; and a market-led approach that makes CCIs a high-value sector with lasting brand equity will ensure the vision of developing India’s CCIs is fulfilled. Cultural and creative heritage, represented through brands and institutions, would mark the evolution of “Make in India” into Brand India. This would tell the story of India’s rise as a soft power, shaping how the aspirations of Viksit Bharat 2047 are nurtured at home and communicated to the world.
Author Brief Bio: Arunima Gupta is an author, scholar of soft power, and a creative economy professional with extensive experience across think tanks and entrepreneurship development organizations in the US and India. She is a Viksit Bharat Fellow at BlueKraft Digital Foundation. Her writing has been published on leading national and international platforms. Arunima holds a master’s in international relations from Leiden University, the Netherlands, and a bachelor’s in history from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University.
Notes
[1] Joseph S. Nye Jr., “Soft Power,” Foreign Policy, no. 80 (Autumn 1990): 153–71, https://doi.org/10.2307/1148580.
[2] Joseph S. Nye Jr., “Soft Power: The Evolution of a Concept,” Journal of Political Power 14, no. 1 (2021): 196–208, https://doi.org/10.1080/2158379X.2021.1879572.
[3] UNESCO, Re|Shaping Cultural Policies: A Decade Promoting the Diversity of Cultural Expressions for Development (Paris: UNESCO, 2015), https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000235710.
[4] UNCTAD, “Trade and the Creative Economy,” accessed 13 October 2026, https://unctad.org/topic/trade-analysis/creative-economy.
[5] Makoto Tsujiguchi, “More than Entertainment: Japan’s Creative Industries and the U.S.-Japan Partnership,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, 13 August 2026, https://www.csis.org/analysis/more-entertainment-japans-creative-industries-and-us-japan-partnership.
[6] Sallie Allen, “Brand Equity Explained: How to Build and Measure Success,” Harvard Business School Online (blog), 5 November 2024, https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/brand-equity.
[7] Primus Partners, Shaping Education to Nurture the $80 Billion Creative Economy (Primus Partners, 2025), https://primuspartners.in/docs/documents/Shaping%20%20Education%20to%20nurture%20the%20$80%20Billion%20Creative%20Economy_updated.pdf.
[8] World Bank, “India,” World Bank Data360, accessed 13 October 2026, https://data360.worldbank.org/en/economy/IND; UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “India,” accessed 13 October 2026, https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/in.
[9] ET Bureau, “Why It Matters Who Owns Yoga,” ETBrandEquity, 24 June 2015, https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/marketing/why-it-matters-who-owns-yoga/47798186.
[10] Atout France, “France: The Undisputed Benchmark for Fashion, Luxury Goods, Perfume and Cosmetics,” 23 January 2025, https://www.atout-france.fr/en/mice/us/fashion.
[11] India Brand Equity Foundation, “Indian Handicrafts Market: Growth, Exports & Government Initiatives,” accessed 13 October 2026, https://www.ibef.org/exports/handicrafts-industry-india.
[12] “Live Nation Reports 2023 Biggest Year Ever for Concert Turnout and Ticket Sales,” Guardian, 22 February 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/feb/22/live-nation-concert-attendance.
[13] James Beard Foundation, “The James Beard Awards,” accessed 13 October 2026, https://www.jamesbeard.org/awards.
[14] Government Public Relations Department, Thailand, “Government Boosts Global Thai Cuisine Appeal,” 10 January 2024, https://thailand.prd.go.th/en/content/category/detail/id/52/iid/248768.
[15] Arunima Gupta and Sanjay Anandaram, “Catalysing Cultural Entrepreneurship in India,” ORF Issue Brief no. 544 (New Delhi: Observer Research Foundation, May 2022), https://www.orfonline.org/research/catalysing-cultural-entrepreneurship-in-india.
[16] Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Economic Survey 2025–26 (New Delhi: Government of India, 2026), https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/economicsurvey/doc/echapter.pdf.
[17] 200 Million Artisans, Financing a Handmade Revolution (200 Million Artisans, July 2023), https://www.businessofhandmade2.com/.
[18] Tracxn, “Ayurvedic Medicines Sector,” n.d., https://tracxn.com/d/trending-businessmodels/startupsinayurvedicmedicines/__y7prdd9ZGGHUYlpuQnvjQW4vjZFmXmL81g1O9FJLHRg#about.
[19] Press Information Bureau, Government of India, “DPIIT and The Estée Lauder Companies Partner to Advance Beauty Innovation and Entrepreneurship in India,” 12 March 2025, https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2110937®=48&lang=2.
