One of the key issues debated today in assessing India’s rise is its role in global and regional governance. Tis paper attempts to assess India’s changing approach towards regionalism and argues that unlike the Nehruvian approach that overlooked South Asia in region building efforts, the new regional approach gives equal emphasis to South Asia regionalism and the wider Indo-Pacific regionalism. The paper asserts that India’s new leadership role in region building stems from its own self interest as well as the interests of the wider region. The paper also examines the main factors driving India’s new regional approach and the strategic challenges in evolving an effective role in regional governance.