India for Hindi as UN language: Minister

[Harold F. Schiffman]

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India for Hindi as UN language: Minister

Press Trust of India

New Delhi, August 19, 2006

India has said that Hindi should be included as one of the languages used
by the United Nations as it was spoken by a substantial percentage of the
world population. Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said
that an international Hindi conference would be held in New York early
next year as part of efforts to popularise further the language in the
world arena.

"Hindi should be included in the United Nations. A substantial percentage
of the world population uses this language," Sharma said in New Delhi on
Friday evening after launching the Hindi website of the Ministry of
External Affairs. With emphasis being laid on greater use of Hindi, MEA
launched the website in this language as part of an effort to make
available the country's foreign policy to a much wider populace. The Hindi
website www.mea.gov.in, developed by the National Informatics Centre
(NIC), will initially be a mirror image of the Ministry's English version
and its further development is expected later.

Sharma said the Hindi website will help in creating greater awareness
among the people about the government's policy and perspectives on
important foreign affair issues. "It will go a long way in generating
interests in Indian democracy, literature, culture, arts and
socio-economic development," he said. The MEA is already engaged actively
in implementation of the Official Language Policy of the government and is
playing an important role in promotion of Hindi abroad. Regional Hindi
conferences are held every year in different countries and in the current
year, these conclaves have been held in Australia, Abu Dhabi and Tokyo.



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