Rs 5 crore budget to propagate Hindi globally in FY 18-19: VK Singh

The Ministry of External Affairs has allocated Rs. 5 crore budget to propagate Hindi globally and a pact with United Nations (UN) to increase Hindi content on UN activities. 

Responding to the question,  Minister of State at the External Affairs Ministry V K Singh said, "Under Ministry’s budget an amount of Rs. 5 crore has been allocated in the current financial year 2018-19 for the propagation of Hindi abroad."

The Government has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a pilot project with the United Nations to increase the volume of content on United Nations activities produced by the United Nations Secretariat in Hindi. The MoU is for an initial period of 2 years, Singh added. 

As part of this project, the United Nations Secretariat has increased the audio, video and text content in Hindi and started social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for disseminating information in Hindi. 

UN also planning to begin a multi-media website in Hindi in 2019, he said.

The Ministry of external affairs regularly organises World Hindi Conference and Regional Hindi Conferences in different parts of the world in cooperation with the local governments, universities and organizations. The 11th World Hindi Conference was successfully organized in Mauritius from 18-20 August 2018 in association with the Government of Mauritius. 

The permanent building of the World Hindi Secretariat was inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind in March 2018. It was set up in Mauritius to promote Hindi worldwide.

Indian Council for Cultural Relations or ICCR has established 26 Hindi Chairs in different countries. It has deployed India based Hindi teachers at its six Indian Cultural Centres and Hindi teaching facilities are also provided by local teachers in its five centres. 

ICCR publishes a bi-monthly Hindi magazine “Gagananchal”, which is circulated to 122 Indian Missions and Posts and 37 Indian Cultural Centres abroad. ICCR spends an amount of Rs. 990 lakhs on Chairs, Rs. 360 lakhs on India based Hindi teachers at Indian Cultural Centres and Rs. 18 lakhs on the publication of Hindi magazine annually.