Hindi weekly news bulletin from UN has begun: Swaraj

A Hindi weekly news bulletin from the platform of the UN has started broadcast as part of a pilot project, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced today, emphasising that the government was also making efforts to make Hindi one of the official languages of the world body.

She also said that a United Nations Twitter account in Hindi has also been opened to give Hindi speaking public access to the programmes and news related to the UN.

"As a pilot project, a weekly news bulletin (in Hindi) has started in the UN from July 22," Swaraj told reporters here.

All Hindi-speaking people from across the world can listen to the news broadcast from the UN, she said.

The news bulletin on UN radio is weekly and is 10 minutes long, Swaraj said.

The bulletin is being facilitated by the Indian government that is bearing its expenses as well, officials said.

Swaraj said that the government was continuing to make efforts to make Hindi one of the official languages of the UN.

She said that getting support of 129 countries out of the 193 countries for making Hindi one of the official languages of the UN was not difficult for India, but the problem arises as the rules state that those countries supporting such a resolution will have to contribute financially for it as well.

This she said gets in the way of small and developing countries in supporting the proposal.

She said India has made it clear that it is ready to bear all expenses to make Hindi one of the official languages of the UN, but its rules for acquiring such a status prevents the country from doing so.

She said Germany and Japan have also said that they are willing to bear all expenses to make their respective languages -- German and Japanese-- official languages of the UN.