A UK born Indian is celebrating her appointment as the BBC's first ever ethnic Indian staff reporter appointed to New Delhi.
British Jews are regularly sent out to report from Israel, but Navdip Dhariwal's appointment is an indication of the BBC's bid to make better use of the ethnic diversity of its staff to get better stories from abroad.
Dhariwal has previously worked for the BBC only in the UK. Her new brief is to report South Asia for BBC News, BBC World TV and BBC World Service.
Since arriving in New Delhi, she has already done a report on globalisation from Bangalore for the Ten O'clock news.
Her team is also working on a story on the Taj corridor controversy, as well as a special report the Gujarat riots, a year-and-half on.
Described as 'feisty' by some of her colleagues, Dhariwal has already had a run in with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who ripped off his microphone and walked out in the middle of an interview.
Undeterred by the experience, Dhariwal says, "There are so many good stories out here and its important that Asian audiences can turn to the BBC for news from the region."
In a recent interview from New Delhi, she said: "I don't think anyone has had an impact since [Mark] Tully - I'm determined to make a difference. News coverage in India has changed dramatically and its amazing."
The BBC's earlier attempt to tap the ethnic diversity of its staff was with Sudanese-origin Rageh Omar, who was sent out to Africa. He recently returned from a successful stint as a war reporter in Iraq.
Dhariwal started her career on a small private station before moving on to national radio and later TV. For the past three years she has been a health and education correspondent for the BBC's prime time One and Six O'Clock News.
Although she returns to the UK in January after her three month stint in New Delhi, she says her ambition is to return to India as a full time correspondent on a longer posting.
