Xi left India on Friday after a visit to boost trade and economic ties that have been marred by a long-standing border dispute.
The blooper occurred on a show on Doordarshan News on Wednesday.
"It is an unpardonable mistake," the official told Reuters on the condition of anonymity, saying the anchor was employed on a casual basis. "We have debarred her from news reading for a few months."
The official said a shortage of news readers had forced the channel to run some news bulletins with casuals.
The incident comes at a time when Doordarshan News is trying to reinvent itself to compete with private broadcasters. Its programmes are often a matter of public ridicule for their poor production quality.
The gaffe led to a wave of sarcastic comments on social media.
"The silver lining: at least the anchor knows Roman numerals," kanikagahlaut posted on Twitter.
COMMENTS (12)
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I'd say in comparison, this is quite pardonable.
Reminds me of another, much worse incident when a Turkish Delegation was visiting a particular country. At the state banquet, the program host started by saying "MY DEAR TURKIES" !!!!
lets see china's capital is peking and has a dispute in LOC with Philippines, and we drive cars made in Mongolia, prime minister of afghanistan is genngis khan. YAY now I can go to UK which is the capital of Scotland. proud to be Pakistani.
@Bash- UK: Someone else's fault? Who has tried to palm the blame off on someone else? Many people in UK cannot pronounce Indian names particularly south Ondian names - so?
Why was the anchor sacked, it can happen to any one. No BIGGIE!
Please note most of the British News readers mispronounce names of Indian leaders.Not only that they mispronounce name of popular cities.Still no excuse for a News reader of Doordarshan not to know the name of a visiting dignitary.
On what basis did DD sack her? She is obviously very poorly read. But did DD has in the job description to be aware of foreign affairs including Chinese pronunciation of Chinese names? She is an English newsreader - there is no word called Xi in English. The closest was "eleven" which she said correctly!!!
A bit harsh.....should not the person who placed her as an anchor also be responsible ? The buck should not stop at the bottom.
@Bash-UK: Look around you - despite their education, they are still successful in the UK as opposed to indulging in crime and filling up their jails.
Once again, this shows, India's education at its best, and its always some else's fault...
What a shame. Doordarshan, the Government owned news channel has these types of anchors who have such a low level of general knowledge? Obviously, she has not been listening to any news and she was asked to read the news !!!!!! The head of the tv channel should be fired and the also the program director who allowed her to red the news.