KBC-like Contest To Promote Hindi In Israel

In order to promote Hindi language in Israel, Indian-origin businessmen have announced a grant of about $33,000 for students learning Hindi. The announcement was made during Vishwa Hindi Diwas (World Hindi Day) celebration at Israel’s Tel Aviv University.

The scheme will support travel expenses of the students who excel in Hindi at the university. The purpose behind this is to enable them to visit India to hone their Hindi language skills.

The candidates will be selected through a contest called Kaun Bharat Jayega, on the lines of the famous Indian television show Kaun Banega Crorepati.

The students will be accompanied by a Hindi alumnus of the university.

The dean of Humanities, Professor Eyal Zisser, also announced a fund to support a trip to India for the students of Hindi. The details will be worked out later by the Department of East Asian studies, where Hindi is taught, along with Japanese and Chinese.

Hundreds took part in the Hindi Diwas celebrations at the university while students staged plays, sang Bollywood songs, recited Sanskrit shlokas and enacted scenes from Hindi films.

“Foreign companies working in India have started to advertise now in Hindi as they have understood that they can touch the hearts of 100 crore Indians only through Hindi. Those who know Hindi do have an edge while doing business in India,” said Jaideep Sarkar, the Indian ambassador to Israel.
Image: Thinkstock