The first issue of the Hindi language edition of EducationWorld — The Human Development Magazine, was released on August 28 before a 20,000 strong audience assembled to witness the annual Indradanush Festival 2008 convened by the S.S. Mody Education Trust in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. The 70-page inaugural Hindi issue was formally released for sale and distribution in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Uttarakhand by Shri Atul Kumar Garg (IAS), chairman and managing director of the Rajasthan Finance Corporation, and Shri T. Ravikant, district collector of Jhunjhunu.

Speaking on the occasion Dilip Thakore, group editor of EducationWorld, said the publication of the Hindi edition which will inform over 80 million households in the Hindi heartland states about news and developments in Indian and foreign education, has the potential to spark an education reform revolution in North India. “The nation-building task of developing the vast human resources of the Hindi heartland states has been grossly neglected during the past half century. I hope the Hindi edition of EducationWorld, whose English language readership countrywide is over 1 million, will awaken the people of the Hindi speaking states to the liberating and enabling power of high quality education,” said Thakore who promoted EW in 1999 with the institutional objective of “building the pressure of public opinion to make education the No.1 item on the national agenda”.

The huge assembly was also addressed by Adittya Mody, co-promoter of the Hindi edition which is being published by a six-strong team of translators and editors based in Delhi. “ Every month EW will bring the 400 million people of the Hindi belt states education-related news from around the country and abroad, offer career counselling advice, spotlight excellent Indian and foreign institutions and offer insightful comment pages from high quality columnists and educationists. This is a long overdue service that the educationally under-served citizens of North India need. We are confident of being able to fulfill this need,” he said.

The next Hindi language issue of EducationWorld (September) is due for publication on September 15. Thereafter, each succeeding issue will be datelined the 15th of each month.