Indian network fires newsreader for 'eleven Jinping' blooper

NEW DELHI: An Indian news anchor was shown the door after she repeatedly referred to visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping as ‘eleven’ Jinping.

The news anchor of India’s state television ‘Doordarshan’ kept slipping up after confusing the Chinese President’s first name written as ‘Xi’ in english with the roman numeral ‘XI’ which stands for ‘eleven’.

According to sources, the CEO of the network confirmed that the news anchor has been fired from the network. He was quoted to have said, “it’s true, we have sacked the concerned newsreader. We are putting systems in place to make sure such things don’t happen in future.”

The incident occurred during the channels transmission on Wednesday.

The Chinese President, Xi Jinping’s visit holds great importance for India, since China will invest nearly $21 billion in various sectors including infrastructure, education, industries as well as civil nuclear cooperation.

The blooper according to Indian media comes at a time when the state broadcaster is trying to re-brand its image to compete with private television networks and is struggling to do so.