Science diplomacy is emerging as a soft-power instrument for India. Examine with reference to India's engagement with international research centres such as ICTP.

Science diplomacy means using research partnerships to build trust and influence between countries. India's Letter of Intent with the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, to create an India-ICTP Co-operation Fund shows this tool becoming a formal one [1]. Its reach still depends on how much capacity India has at home.

How ICTP engagement builds India's soft power

• From ad hoc to formal links: the fund formalises years of joint research, workshops and exchanges involving DST, CSIR, universities and IITs [1].
• Talent mobility: Indian researchers get structured access to visiting fellowships, diploma programmes and postdoctoral positions at a global hub for physics and mathematics [1].
• Global South leadership: DST funds the DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize for young mathematicians from developing countries. This presents India as a giver of scientific recognition, not only a receiver [2].
• Bilateral spillover: ICTP ties add to the India–Italy S&T track, including the Executive Programme of Cooperation 2025–27 [3].

Limits that weaken this soft power

• Intent, not commitment: an LoI is not legally binding. The fund is still only "proposed", with no corpus disclosed [1].
• Weak home base: India's GERD was only 0.64% of GDP in 2020-21 [4]. Fellows who return from Trieste find few labs and grants to continue their work.
• Brain drain not tracked: the government told the Lok Sabha that brain drain was not significantly affecting science [5]. As a result, no one is asked to count how many fellows come back.
• Short-term tools: inbound schemes like VAJRA host overseas scientists only for limited periods [5]. Neither VAJRA nor outbound fellowships builds lasting research groups by itself.

Way forward

• Fix a corpus and a yearly number of fellowships, and show them as a separate budget line.
• Give returning fellows priority for ANRF start-up grants.
• Widen selection beyond elite institutions, to state universities and smaller colleges.
• Publish outcome metrics: how many fellows returned, joint papers, and workshops run in India.

Engagement with ICTP gives India affordable access to global science and goodwill in the Global South. Turning that into lasting soft power needs a properly funded fund, links to return pathways, and higher domestic R&D spending. That way, mobility becomes brain circulation and supports SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure) and the constitutional duty to develop scientific temper (Article 51A(h)).