British High Commission launches Hindi website

NEW DELHI: In an attempt to reach to more people in India, British High Commission today launched it's Hindi website hoping that this will bring a transformational change in the relations between both the countries.
The website -- www.ukinindia.fco.gov.uk/hi -- will be updated on a daily basis parallel to it's English counterpart.

The website has sections like news, business, details for British nationals, information about visas, studying and holidaying abroad.

Launching the website, British High Commissioner Sir Richard Stagg said, "given the fact that Hindi is the language more people speak in India and that the internet is becoming more popular, we hope that this move would bring a transformational change in our relations with the people here."

"This step is part of a wider strategy to communicate directly with the citizens of this country and elsewhere. We hope to communicate with communities which we haven't been able to till now," Stagg said.

Considering "digital diplomacy" to be as important as traditional diplomacy, he said, "in case of traditional diplomacy, it is just the government to government, whereas through websites or digital diplomacy, lobby groups, NGOs, society gets involved."

Relation between any two countries is not just about the government of one country and the other, the NGOs, lobby groups and society too shape the policy of a country, he said.

The Commission does not, as of now plan to have their website in other Indian languages, preferring to check the effectiveness of the newly launched website.

"We do not have any plans of having websites in other languages. If we are able to communicate effectively through this website, we will then see if we can be more ambitious," he said.