NDTV has launched a Hindi language portal - NDTVKhabar.com. The ABC of content (Astrology, Bollywood and Cricket) have been given due importance; There is news (national, international, business and sports. There’s also a slightly unusual segment in the mix: tension mat le yaar incorporates both humour and a helpline. There are blogs (yes, there are blogs), but just one post. Incidentally, Ravish Kumar, an NDTV journalist, also blogs in Hindi at Nai Sadak...though NDTV appears to be focused more on getting readers to blog, rather than their own journalists. What’s your take on that approach? I feel that quality of content might suffer, like it did with NDTVblogs.com.

Other interactive elements are fairly standard: a message board, and a space where users can upload their stories. The advertising on the site is in English, though. I tried Hindi search (keyword - cricket), but it didn’t work…though in their defense, the site is currently in beta. NDTVkhabar uses the MitraOpen font.

Given the paucity of local language portals, it’s good to see more media companies launching such sites. Web18 has Josh18.com. Recently, Business Standard had launched its own business news website to complement its Hindi newspaper. We’d done a story on the issues of the Hindi Blogosphere earlier.