NEW YORK CITY (TIP): More than two hundred Hindi scholars and professionals from around the world will participate in the three-day Hindi conference scheduled to be held from January 6 to 8, 2017 in Vishakhapatnam, India.

An announcement about the conference was made by Ashok Ojha, chief coordinator and president of Hindi Sangam Foundation, a US based educational and cultural organization, which has joined hands with GITAM University, Vishakhapatnam, and a host of US and India based institutions to hold the Fourth International Hindi Conference (http://www.gitam.edu/).

Speaking at the Kick-Off meet held at the Consulate General of India, New York, on Friday, December 9, Ojha said, “The Fourth International Hindi Conference aims to create a bridge between the pedagogical experts of the Hindi language taught to speakers of other languages (THSOL) in India and particularly in the non-Hindi speaking areas of India, and the pedagogical experts and instructors in the USA and the rest of the world, including the South Asian diaspora (Canada, England, Mauritius, Fiji, etc.), where Hindi is mostly taught as a heritage language as well as a foreign language.”

Mr. Ojha said that about a dozen leading Hindi scholars from US universities, including New York University, Columbia, Duke, City University of New York, Pace and Pennsylvania State University are travelling to Vishakhapatnam to attend the conference. He added that the conference theme is: “Teaching Hindi To Other Language Speakers (THSOL): Pedagogical Perspectives, Language Planning and Program Development.”

Dr. Lakshmi Prasad Yarlagadda, Padma Bhushan Awardee and former Rajya Sabha member attended the event as the chief guest of the event. Dr. Yarlagadda, who is also the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the conference, informed the audience that E. S. L. Narasimhan, Governor of Andhra Pradesh, will inaugurate the conference on January 6 while Mr. Prakash Jawadekar, India’s HRD Minister has agreed to attend the Valedictory event of the conference on January 8, 2017.

Mr. L. T. Ngaithe, Consul, Consulate General of India, presided over the Kick off meeting. He praised the organizers for diligently working to promote Hindi in USA and around the world.Thanking the Consulate General of India for its continued support to promote Hindi in USA Mr. Ojha, who is also the president of Hindi Sangam Foundation, said, “The Consulate General of India has been supporting the cause of Hindi since the First International Hindi Conference, which was organized at the New York University in 2014. It was followed by the second International Hindi conference at Rutgers University, NJ, in 2015 and the third conference was held in April-May 2016 at the Consulate General of India premises.”

Professor Rakesh Ranjan of Columbia University said, “The conference at Vishakhapatnam will provide a unique forum for a dialogue among Hindi scholars and administrators and will allow for partnerships and project collaborations to be formed with the goal to expand, enrich and promote further the field of Hindi education.”

Other speakers included Dr. Bijoy Mehta, Chairman, Hindi Sangam Foundation, Mrs. Purnima Desai, Vice-Chair of the foundation, Professor Susham Bedi of City University of New York, and Professor Indrajit Saluja, Editor, Indian Panorama.

Details of the Fourth International Hindi Conference, 2017 may be viewed on its website:

http://www.hindiconferenceamericas.com/