World Hindi Conference begins in Mauritius with tributes to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Port Louis [Mauritius]: The 11th World Hindi Conference began in Mauritius on Saturday. This year the theme of the conference is "Hindi World and Indian Culture". The conference began by paying tribute to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

In her opening statement, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that it is crucial to protect, propagate and conserve Hindi in its pure form as language and culture are interconnected. 

The three-day conference aims to expand the reach of the Hindi language at a global level. 

Emphasising on the protection of India's culture and Hindi, Swaraj said India has taken the responsibility to protect the language in other countries. 

She said the BJP-led government is making efforts to make Hindi one of the official languages of the United Nations. 

A Hindi weekly news bulletin from the platform of the UN has started broadcast as part of a pilot project, she said. 

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

"This weekly bulletin could be converted into a daily bulletin. For that the world body will oversee the response of listeners and rate accordingly for two years. If the response will be good, then it will be converted into a daily news bulletin," she said. 

The World Hindi Conference is organised every three years and in the past it has been organised thrice in India, twice in Mauritius, and one time each in Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, the UK, the US and South Africa.

With agency inputs