Category: World Service
Date: 30.01.2006
Printable version
The award-winning website bbcurdu.com is launching a series of events in three Indian cities to meet its audiences and discuss the place of Urdu in India.
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Starting on Wednesday 1 February in Delhi, the IndiaOnline series then goes to Hyderabad and Mumbai, engaging renowned personalities from India's media, politics and cinema scene.
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Mohammed Hanif, Head of 91Èȱ¬ Urdu service, says the bbcurdu.com team is excited about the IndiaOnline initiative.
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"We are stepping from the virtual world into the real world to come face to face with our users," he says.
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"A good proportion of bbcurdu.com users are India's Urdu speakers.
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"Along with the opportunity to directly interact with our online users in India, the IndiaOnline series of discussions will give us a chance to gain fresh insights into the status of Urdu in modern-day India and share them with Urdu-speakers, wherever they are in the world."
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In Delhi and Hyderabad, the bbcurdu.com journalists will discuss the subject of Urdu and New Media in panel discussions.
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In Delhi the event is in partnership with Jamia Milia Islamia and will be held at the Ansari Auditorium at 4.00pm on Wednesday 1 February.
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In Hyderabad, where bbcurdu.com has partnered Maulana Azad Urdu University, the discussion will take place at 10.00am on Sunday 5 February at the Jubilee Hall.
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In Mumbai a high profile panel will discuss the relationship between Urdu and Bollywood and how it has changed over the years. This event will be held at 6.00pm on Sunday 12 February at Xaviers Institute of Communications.
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Notes to Editors
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bbcurdu.com is updated 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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bbcurdu.com has up-to-the minute news, features and analysis on Pakistan, India and South Asia as well as news from the rest of the world.
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Along with text, visitors are able to listen to the audio of radio programmes and comment in online debates.
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Having recently ventured into online video, bbcurdu.com is the largest Urdu news site in the world with more than 13 million page impressions a month.
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