3 TED videos to help understand India on the world stage

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I'm a huge fan of TED talks - bite-size videos from the experts on technology, entertainment, and design. I found the following three videos do a wonderful job describing India from three different perspectives - like three blind men describing the same elephant in three very different ways. Hans Rosling provides a compelling analysis of the numbers, Shashi Tharoor describes India's growing "soft power" throughout the world, and Devdutt Pattanaik takes a third perspective altogether.

Hans Rosling: Asia's rise -- how and when

The TED talk and discussion page describes this video as:

Hans Rosling was a young guest student in India when he first realized that Asia had all the capacities to reclaim its place as the world's dominant economic force. At TEDIndia, he graphs global economic growth since 1858 and predicts the exact date that India and China will outstrip the US.

Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue "soft" power

The TED talk and discussion page describes this video as:

India is fast becoming a superpower, says Shashi Tharoor -- not just through trade and politics, but through "soft" power, its ability to share its culture with the world through food, music, technology, Bollywood. He argues that in the long run it's not the size of the army that matters as much as a country's ability to influence the world's hearts and minds.

East vs. West -- the myths that mystify Devdutt Pattanaik

The TED talk and discussion page describes this video as:

Devdutt Pattanaik takes an eye-opening look at the myths of India and of the West -- and shows how these two fundamentally different sets of beliefs about God, death and heaven help us consistently misunderstand one another.