The BBC’s first Gujarati language news bulletin will broadcast live five days a week from Delhi and will be shown on partner station GSTV at 8pm IST.
The bulletin will bring insightful global and national stories to the Gujarati-speaking audience in India and around the world. Using touchscreen technology and digital content, BBC Samachar will provide the main issues of interest to young audiences and provide a platform for a wide spectrum of people. The bulletin will aim to stir conversations and will be strongly rooted in the BBC’s principles of fairness and impartiality.
The launch is part of the BBC World Service expansion, which has seen 12 new language services launched around the world over the last 12 months. Four new language services have been launched online in India: Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi & Telegu. BBC Samachar joins the Telegu TV bulletin BBC Prapancham and the nightly Hindi TV news bulletin, BBC Duniya.
This forms part of a significant BBC investment in India, including an expanded news bureau in Delhi with two new TV studios. The Delhi bureau is the BBC’s second largest outside the UK and is the TV and digital content production hub for the whole of South Asia.
Ankur Jain, Editor for the Gujarati service, says: “After the successful launch of BBC News Gujarati website last year, the news bulletin will help us broaden our audience base on TV. Audiences will now be able to watch the unique and incredible stories from the world which will offer them a different perspective of what is happening within the region.”
Shreyans Shah, Managing editor, GSTV, says: “GSTV is extremely delighted about the partnership with BBC News Gujarati. This marks a new era in Gujarati journalism. GSTV is one of Gujarat’s most celebrated news channels and I am sure with this bulletin we will further cement our relationship with the audience.”
BBC Samachar will bring together the best of BBC’s content produced globally and nationally. The bulletin will have Indian stories as well as international, and will also offer a mix of trending topics, sports, entertainment, business, health, education and women’s interests.
Through our network of reporters across the region BBC Samachar will report on variety of original stories and issues that matter to people in India and the diaspora.