INVC NEWS
New Delhi,
The Ministry of External Affairs, through its Missions and Posts abroad and in coordination with Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), carries out various activities to popularize and promote Hindi language in other countries.
ICCR has established Chairs of Hindi language in universities in Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Thailand. The Cultural Centres of ICCR in Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, Fiji, Guyana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Tajikistan, Thailand and Uzbekistan conduct regular Hindi classes through India-based/locally recruited Hindi teachers. These and other Cultural Centres of ICCR also carry out other Hindi promotional activities including celebration of the ‘World Hindi Day’. ICCR brings out a bi-monthly Hindi journal – Gagananchal, which is distributed abroad through Indian Missions/Posts/Cultural Centres as well as within India. The budget allocation for 2015-16 for various Hindi promotion activities by ICCR is Rupees six crores.
The Ministry regularly organizes World Hindi Conference and Regional Hindi Conferences in different parts of the world in cooperation with local governments, universities and organizations. The other activities carried out by the Ministry to popularize and promote Hindi abroad include, interalia, gifting of Hindi books to schools and universities, providing honorarium to Hindi teachers through Indian Missions/ Posts and providing grants to Indian Missions and Posts for organizing Hindi Diwas and Vishwa Hindi Diwas. These promotional activities are carried out through separate provisions in the Ministry’s annual budget.
Under a bilateral agreement between the Governments of India and Mauritius based on equal sharing of budget, World Hindi Secretariat has been functional since 2008 at Port Louis, Mauritius to promote Hindi worldwide.
The Minister of State for the external Affairs Gen. Dr. V. K. Singh (Retd.) provided this information
