Hyderabad, July 14 - Over 2,000 newspaper publishers, CEOs, chief editors and other senior newspaper executives are expected to gather here from Nov 30 to Dec 3 as India hosts the 62nd World Newspaper Congress and 16th World Editors Forum.

The congress along with the Info Services Expo will be organised at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) here.

This is the first time that India is hosting the meeting of the prestigious world bodies and the expo, at a time when the global financial crisis has put pressure on advertising-dependent media.

The events, originally scheduled for March, were postponed due to poor delegate response due the impact of the downturn on travel and conference budgets in newspaper companies.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has assured full support to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and Indian Newspaper Society (INS) in conducting the events.

The assurance came when WAN vice president Pratap G. Pawar and INS president Harmosji N. Kama called on the chief minister Monday to seek the state government's cooperation in making the conclave a success.

They informed the chief minister that President Pratibha Patil had agreed to inaugurate the global meetings.