MUMBAI: BBC will end its Hindi radio service in India after captivating listeners for 70 long years.

The transmission, which began in 1940 even before India won Independence, would no longer be available in the sub-continent from 31 March 2011.   
     
  Some 30 employees working for one of the oldest radio services in India have been given their pink slips. Now BBC‘s Hindi presence in India is nothing beyond its tweeter site, which has only 735 followers.

The BBC World Service officially said on Wednesday that it would close five of its language services, shut down radio services for another seven languages and cut 650 jobs as it seeks to make drastic savings.

The Albanian, Macedonian, Portuguese for Africa and Serbian language services as well as the English for the Caribbean regional service will all be shut down over the next three years.