Telangana’s Taste Diplomacy Becomes the Talking Point of Global Summit 2025 in Hyderabad
Hyderabad’s biggest conversation emerging from Global Summit 2025 besides policy resolution is Telangana’s pioneering experiment in culinary diplomacy. In a world-first move, Chief Minister Shri Revanth Reddy and Special Chief Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, unveiled state-led Regional Culinary Heritage Baskets, instantly becoming the Summit’s most photographed and talked-about cultural moment.
Unlike Peru’s ceviche kits or Thailand’s Tom Yum hampers, Telangana’s baskets go beyond representation — they embed tribal memory, rural livelihoods, royal craftsmanship and women-led entrepreneurship into diplomatic gifting.
“Our culinary baskets activate a fusion of tribal wisdom, Nizami heritage and agritech innovation,” said Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. “Telangana is rewriting the playbook of cultural diplomacy.”
Jayesh Ranjan called it “infrastructure for cultural export — where every delegate becomes an ambassador for Telangana’s 10,000 women entrepreneurs, forest artisans and heritage food makers.”
A Basket That Became a Movement
These baskets capture five distinct culinary geographies — forest foods, royal kitchens, agrarian homes, festival snacks and artisanal sweets.
Ippa Puvvu Laddus, crafted by 75 Gond Adivasi women from Adilabad.
Makka Pelalu, sourced from farmers in Kamareddy.
Badam Ki Jali, a 200-year-old lattice sweet prepared by a Hussaini family in Hyderabad’s Aziz Bagh, custodians of the recipe for four generations.
Nuvvula Undalu, Appalu/Chakkalu, Sakinalu and Murukulu prepared by rural Telangana women collectives.
Every basket connects 10,000+ self-help groups, tribal producers and heritage families to international markets.
The Research Behind the Basket
Curator Gopi Byluppala, Founder, The Culinary Lounge shared that the project took months of field work.
“We interacted with more than 100 culinary artisans, tasted their food and identified communities who could deliver quality consistently,” he said. “The goal was to financially uplift rural makers while preserving authenticity.”
Importantly, the team chose to work directly with artisans, not commercial distributors.
“That’s where emotional value enters,” Gopi said.
“This basket is Telangana’s love letter to the world — an invitation to taste and remember our culinary traditions.”
Global Summit’s Most Human Story
Amid geopolitical conversations and economic dialogues, Telangana’s basket rose as the Summit’s most human story — a symbolic gesture filled with heritage, inclusion and voice.
Delegates compared it to Japan’s tea diplomacy and France’s wine diplomacy — but Telangana’s approach was more participatory, more grassroots, and far more socially impactful.
With Hyderabad trending globally through this lens, Telangana is fast emerging as Asia’s new culinary diplomacy hub, merging soft power with economic empowerment.
