DW Hindi

About DW Hindi

DW Hindi is the Hindi-language service of Deutsche Welle, Germany's public international broadcaster, publishing at dw.com/hi. One of some 32 languages in which Deutsche Welle operates, the Hindi service has been on air since 1964, when DW launched Hindi and Urdu radio programmes aimed at audiences in India and Pakistan. Today DW Hindi is a digital-first news and features service producing articles, videos and social content for one of the world's largest Hindi-speaking audiences, supported by a production hub and bureau in New Delhi that also serves DW's Urdu, Bengali, Tamil and English teams for the South Asian region.

Deutsche Welle: The Parent Broadcaster

Deutsche Welle — literally "German Wave", commonly shortened to DW — is Germany's state-funded international broadcaster, launched on 3 May 1953 and headquartered in Bonn, where its radio programmes are produced, with television production based almost entirely in Berlin. Funded by the Federal Government of Germany, it is a public-service broadcaster whose work is regulated by the Deutsche Welle Act, which stipulates that its content must remain independent of German government influence. DW is a member of the European Broadcasting Union. Its stated goals are to produce reliable news coverage, provide access to the German language, and promote understanding between peoples. As of 2020 the broadcaster employed around 1,668 people directly, with more than 4,000 people of over 140 nationalities working across its offices in Bonn and Berlin and its bureaus worldwide. Its satellite television service carries channels in English, Spanish and Arabic, while its news website and apps publish in dozens of languages.

The Hindi Service: Broadcasting Since 1964

DW's Hindi service dates back to 1964, when the broadcaster added Hindi and Urdu to its radio programming, debuting broadcasts aimed at India and Pakistan. The programmes were conceived during the Cold War to explain German perspectives and foster understanding between peoples. For decades the Hindi service was chiefly a shortwave radio operation: at one point it aired a daily 50-minute Hindi block on shortwave, carrying international news, science, culture, education, sports and youth-affairs programming, along with an audience-feedback show — and, notably, a long-running fortnightly slot for a programme in Sanskrit conducted by an Indologist. The service built a small but loyal following in India, estimated at around 60,000 listeners in the early 2000s, deliberately targeting opinion-makers as well as German tourists in hotels across Goa, Rajasthan, Kerala and the major metros. With the decline of shortwave listening, DW Hindi migrated online, and today its home is the dw.com/hi website, complemented by video and social-media distribution.

The New Delhi Bureau and Production Hub

India is a priority market in DW's strategy, and New Delhi hosts one of the broadcaster's key regional production hubs. DW's strategic plan for 2022–2025 cites the New Delhi hub as an example of how multilingual production centres strengthen editorial synergies: from Delhi, regional-language teams produce content in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Tamil in addition to English programming. The plan commits DW to recruiting additional local staff with expertise in modern video production and digital playout channels in its prioritised target countries, and to using the Delhi, Taipei and Jakarta hubs to disseminate content selectively during core usage times in target markets. DW announced plans to open a new bureau in New Delhi in the first quarter of 2020 as part of its South Asia expansion, alongside agreements with private and state-run Indian broadcasters for co-productions. Alongside its staff journalists, DW maintains a network of freelance correspondents across India, and its Delhi-based reporters file for both the Hindi service and DW's English and international output.

Programming and Content

DW Hindi publishes regularly updated news articles, explainers, features and videos at dw.com/hi, covering Indian and international news, science, environment, culture, education and social issues. The service translates DW's global journalism for a Hindi-speaking audience — from coverage of European politics and climate policy to stories on technology, health and migration — while also producing original reporting on India itself. DW has launched a Hindi adaptation of its successful documentary channels on YouTube, bringing its long-form documentary journalism to Hindi viewers. The Hindi service's digital products are geared to young target groups, in line with DW's broader regionalisation strategy for Asia, and its content is distributed through its own website as well as Facebook, YouTube and other platforms where, with the exception of some services, all of DW's Asian languages maintain channels.

Eco India and Indian Partnerships

Co-productions with Indian media organisations are a cornerstone of DW's India strategy, and the flagship example is Eco India, a weekly programme on sustainability and environmental issues co-produced by DW and the Indian digital news platform Scroll.in. The show focuses on changemakers tackling environmental problems in India and Europe, aiming to bring sustained, constructive journalism on the environment into the mainstream. After a successful run in English, Eco India has also been offered in Hindi since 2020, extending its reach to Hindi-speaking audiences. DW's leadership has described co-productions as a key success factor in South Asia, arguing that audiences want not only news but motivating stories and educational programmes that touch people's lives directly. Beyond Scroll.in, DW has pursued agreements with private and state-run Indian broadcasters to carry its programming, and its content has historically been available in India via DD Free Dish and regional partners.

Digital-First Distribution and Social Media

Like the rest of Deutsche Welle, DW Hindi has pivoted decisively to digital distribution. Its articles and videos are published on dw.com/hi and shared across social platforms, where DW's language services maintain dedicated channels on YouTube, Facebook and other networks. The strategic emphasis is on reaching younger, mobile-first audiences in India — a market with nearly 900 television channels, hundreds of 24-hour news channels in several languages, and digital media growing at remarkable speed, as DW's leadership has noted. DW Hindi's YouTube presence includes documentary content adapted for Hindi viewers, while its website offers the full range of DW's international reporting in Hindi. This digital-first approach reflects a broader DW reorientation: regionalised, mobile-optimised coverage produced close to the audience, in the audience's own language, rather than one-size-fits-all output from Bonn and Berlin.

Editorial Standards and Independence

As part of Deutsche Welle, DW Hindi operates under the broadcaster's editorial standards and the legal framework of the Deutsche Welle Act, which guarantees the broadcaster's independence from the German government despite its public funding. DW describes its journalistic mission as providing reliable, independent news coverage and promoting understanding between peoples, and it is a member of the European Broadcasting Union, whose members commit to public-service values. The broadcaster also runs DW Akademie, its centre for international media development, which trains journalists and strengthens media structures in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe — part of the same institutional commitment to free and professional journalism that underpins DW Hindi's output. For Indian audiences, this means a Hindi news source whose editorial line is set by journalistic standards rather than by commercial or state interests in either country.

Reach and Audience in Asia and India

DW reports around 31 million weekly user contacts across Asia, and sees far greater potential on the continent — with India, the world's most populous country and one of its largest media markets, at the centre of that ambition. DW offers content in eight Asian languages, and Hindi is among the most important of them, given the size of the Hindi-speaking population in India and the diaspora. The broadcaster's South Asia strategy explicitly aims to make its content more relevant to Indian users by producing it locally, in regional languages, and through partnerships with Indian media houses. In a crowded Indian news market, DW Hindi positions itself as an international perspective in the Hindi language — German and European viewpoints on global affairs, alongside reporting on India, delivered with public-broadcaster standards of accuracy and balance.

DW Akademie and Media Development

Beyond news publishing, Deutsche Welle's presence in the region extends through DW Akademie, its centre for international media development. DW Akademie works to strengthen free media and professional journalism skills, with regional activities expanding across Asia — including training, media strategy development and support for local film and media industries. In its strategic planning, DW has committed to expanding DW Akademie's regional activities in Asia, recruiting local experts to develop media strategies suited to an increasingly complex, digital and polarised media environment. While DW Akademie's work is distinct from DW Hindi's newsroom output, both flow from the same mandate: supporting informed public debate and independent journalism. The New Delhi hub thus serves a dual role — a newsroom producing Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil and English content, and a base for DW's wider engagement with India's media ecosystem.

How to Access DW Hindi

DW Hindi is freely accessible online at dw.com/hi, where readers can find the latest news, features and videos in Hindi, updated around the clock. Its documentary and video content is also available through DW's Hindi-language YouTube offerings and its social-media channels. For viewers interested in the flagship co-production Eco India, episodes are published weekly in partnership with Scroll.in. As a free, publicly funded international broadcaster, DW makes all of its Hindi content available without subscription or paywall — part of its mission to provide reliable news and promote understanding between peoples, now in its seventh decade of broadcasting to India.