MUMBAI: The head of BBC's Hindi Service Achala Sharma has been awarded the World Hindi Honour at the seventh World Hindi Conference held in Surinam a few days ago.
 

An official release informs that she has been recognised for her significant contribution to the development and popularity of the Hindi language in the field of broadcast and literature.

For almost 18 years now, Sharma has been instrumental in turning BBC Hindi into a leading Hindi-language radio and online service. Among other achievements, she has to her credit two collections of radio plays, Passport and Jaren (Roots) which were recently released in London. She has also authored two novels and three collections of short stories.

Sharma said: "Hindi as a language has an immense potential. With Indians living all over the world, it is transcending geographical boundaries. The World Hindi conference being an annual event held in different countries stands testimony to the diverse reach of the language."

BBC World Service broadcasts programmes around the world in 43 languages and is available on radio and online at bbcworldservice.com. It claims to have a global audience of 150 million listeners.