KUWAIT: Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST), Kuwait on Thursday to establish ICCR’s Chair of Indian Studies at GUST to teach the Hindi language. The MoU was signed by India’s Ambassador to Kuwait Dr Adarsh Swaika and President of GUST Prof Bassam Alameddine

Under the MoU, ICCR will appoint an Indian academic expert to teach Hindi at GUST for a period of up to three years. Hindi is spoken by over 600 million people worldwide, making it the third most spoken language globally. Beyond India, Hindi is widely spoken in countries with significant Indian diasporas, including Mauritius, Fiji, Nepal and Trinidad & Tobago. The United Nations acknowledged Hindi’s international importance by launching Hindi social media platforms and a Hindi website in 2018.

This is ICCR’s first-ever Chair of Indian Studies in Kuwait, marking a major milestone in the promotion of Indian culture and language in the country A similar Hindi language Chair was established in Oman in December 2023, the first of its kind in the Gulf region. Earlier this year, in April 2024, a weekly Hindi radio broadcast was also launched on Kuwait Radio. These initiatives underline the importance of Hindi in Kuwait and the pivotal contributions of the large and vibrant Indian diaspora in Kuwait.