NEW DELHI: Hindi may still have some way to go before it becomes one of the official UN languages but it is starting to make waves internationally for sure. The UN, on the occasion of World Hindi Day last week, launched its first news service website in Hindi, providing some traction to India’s soft global outreach.
With the launch of the website, Hindi becomes the first non-UN Asian language to have that honour. The UN is currently 
also using Hindi on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to enhance its reach.
The inauguration of the Hindi news website is said to be part of a UN pilot programme to promote global rules and values using languages other than the 6 official ones.
The UN had last year launched a weekly news bulletin in Hindi too.
The launch of the Hindi website is expected to provide a fillip to India’s efforts to make Hindi one of the official UN languages. India needs support from 2/3rd of the 193-member UNGA to get Hindi that status Recommended By Colombia While the government is confident of getting that kind of support for Hindi, the rules make it mandatory for countries supporting a resolution to give any language official status to also together bear expenses for it. As foreign minister Sushma Swaraj had said last year, this prevents small and developing from With the launch of the website, Hindi becomes the first non-UN Asian language to have that honour.
The UN is currently also using Hindi on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to enhance its reach The UN had last year launched a weekly news bulletin in Hindi too FROM AROUND THE WEB supporting any such resolution. India alone, even if it wants to, can’t take responsibility for the financial cost involved in making Hindi an official UN language The UN had earlier started broadcasting its programmes on the UN Radio website in Hindi language also in what Swaraj had described as significant achievement in ensuring acceptance of Hindi as an official UN language.
MoS (MEA) V K Singh had told Rajya Sabha last year that in Financial Year 2017-18, Rs 5 core was allocated for efforts to propagate Hindi worldwide through India’s diplomatic missions and posts abroad. “Allocations for this purpose over the last three years were: Rs 3 cr (2014-15); Rs 3 cr (2015-16) and Rs 4.99 cr (2016-17),” he had said.
