Amrita School of Business, Kochi, organized an International symposium on “Soft Power: Creating Strategic Advantage”. The event took place at Amrita Hospital, Kochi. The International symposium named ASTHRA is the flag ship event of Amrita School of Business, Kochi.

The chief guest of the event was Cmde. Anurag Srivastava, Officer-In-Charge at the Anti-Submarine Warfare School, Kochi. The 10th edition of ASTHRA also had eminent speakers, including the Head of Cisco for Start-ups, Smt. Sruthi Kannan; Dr. Srinivasan Rangan, Associate Professor, IIM Bangalore; Shri. Anustup Nayak, Project Director, Central Square Foundation; Shri. Rajaraman G, Former Advisor (Media), Sports Authority of India; and Shri. Suresh Kochattil, Media Professional, who discussed and shared the ideas on the topic of Soft Power.

Speaking about the role of the Indian Navy in balancing India’s hard and soft power, Cmde. Anurag Srivastava, Officer-In-Charge, Anti- Submarine Warfare, said: “Naval diplomacy is where the soft power comes in. It entails the use of naval forces in support of foreign policy objectives to build friendship and strengthen international corporation on one hand and to signal capability and intent to detect potential advisory on the other”
Smt. Sruthi Kannan, Head of Cisco for Start-ups, had an interactive session with the students and discussed the role of technology in increasing soft power in the session she said: “Soft power is about how we can influence without authority in situations. It is transcending, Multiple pillars from business, corporates, academia, and the government. Technology, cross cuts all these pillars”

Shri. Rajaraman G, Former Advisor (Media), Sports Authority of India, shared his thoughts on Sport as Soft Power and spoke about the opportunities ahead of India to go beyond Olympic performances by showcasing its vast Human Resource and Technological Skills.

Shri. Suresh Kochattil, a media professional, spoke about specific strengths of India that can be utilized by our media to enhance India’s soft power He said “the best propaganda is not propaganda. We have created a cultural icon to implement soft power. Now, we need to tell our own stories. An MBA can be projected on how to revive cultural icons and bring more business to Kerala or any other part of the country.”

Dr. Srinivasan Rangan spoke about harnessing the immense power stored within an individual and Mr. Anustup Nayak drew the audience’s attention towards the role of education in building soft power.

The symposium premised on the complex interconnectedness of the world and the significance of the interplay of soft and hard power in business.