Now Australia, South Korea to host Festival of India

New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) After successfully hosting "Festival of India" in China, South Africa and Japan, the ministry of culture Tuesday revealed that the next destinations to showcase India's cultural heritage would be South Korea, Australia, Mauritius and Myanmar.

In a video conference with the ambassadors and high commissioners of respective countries, Culture Secretary Ravindra Singh said "these festivals can be used to showcase Indian art, culture, life and achievements".

He also shared the experience of the festivals held in other countries and various themes of these festivals like Buddhism, yoga and exhibitions on cricket.

Singh asked these countries to collaborate among themselves and schedule the activities in such a way that the artistic performances and exhibitions being run in a particular country can be presented in the neighboring countries too, a statement from the culture ministry said.

According to the statement, events and theme of the festival will be decided by each country.

While the ambassador to South Korea was in favour of festival theme based on Buddhism since it has a large Budhist population, the envoy in Myanmar emphasised that the yoga and ayurveda can be of special interest in their country.

They also pitched for showcasing the journey of Indian civilization from 5,000 years ago to the modern India.

Singh also emphasised how social media should be utilised to the maximum extent possible, something that resonated with these dignitaries who favoured the idea of projecting the face of modern India by showcasing the rise of "digital India" and other modern technological developments in the field of space.