Embassy New Delhi, India and Constituent Posts - OIG - US ...

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the well-received “Roaming Roemer” blog. The Ambassador’s campaign to “shake a billion
hands” is a popular Web site feature.
The OIG team found that in some instances an unhelpful gap existed in PAS India
between the American officers and LE staff. Many local employees felt that the American
supervisors did not bring them into the planning process in a meaningful way, and they would
like to make a more substantive contribution to the mission’s public diplomacy effort. During the
inspection, the PAO initiated specific actions to address this issue.
PAS New Delhi works well in handling communication with the Department, funneling
information to it from the mission’s branch operations. Some tensions and communication lags
exist between PAS New Delhi and its counterparts in the consulates general. In most cases these
are the normal, inevitable outcome of distance. The exception is communication and
coordination from the New Delhi program section (see below).
PAS India has enjoyed a number of significant successes in the past 2 years, some of
which have relevance for public diplomacy operations globally. Chief among them is the
intelligent exploitation of public diplomacy platforms. A rejuvenated American Center in New
Delhi has become the locus of program activity in support of targeting the educated youth of
India’s emerging middle class (an MSRP goal). PAS has also achieved some success reaching
another targeted demographic group as the mission shifted from “Muslim outreach” to the more
nuanced “interfaith dialogue,” an approach better suited to working in India. Similarly, the
section has experimented with contracting out the publicity for major program events. Finally,
PAS India’s intelligent use of social media is a model for how to integrate technology with
programs and mission messages. These clear successes have come despite a number of
organizational and management shortcomings.
Press and Information Programs
The press section works in teams that focus on social media, print, and television. Each
has functional responsibilities as well, and they use public diplomacy tools to convey a unified
message about the U.S. partnership with India. With 60,000 registered newspapers and
magazines reaching 222 million people, India is a market of avid consumers of print media. India
has nearly 1,400 stations, making it the fourth-largest television broadcast market in the world.
With an estimated 81,000,000 Internet users and an explosion of cell phones, social media usage
is increasing exponentially. PAS New Delhi produced a comprehensive institutional analysis of
the national media and likely future trends in electronic and vernacular media, and the press
section has embarked on a plan to use social media in support of MSRP goals and increased its
coverage of and outreach to Hindi and Urdu media.
Social Media
PAS employs the tools of social media strategically. An assistant information officer
serves as chief of the social media team. The unit uses Facebook to publicize events, generating
interest with America-related quizzes and contests tied to programs. Beyond Facebook and the
embassy Web site (updated daily), the team works systematically, using a tool that creates and
stores photos, images, and information in advance of events on an electronic calendar that
automatically updates Web sites. PAS posts photos of mission events on Flickr, where target
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