Government of India Launches BharatGen, First Government-Funded Multimodal AI Initiative
The Indian government has unveiled BharatGen, the first government-funded initiative for developing multimodal LLMs, which stands for building “GenAI for Bharat, by Bharat.” The project, which aims to revolutionise public service delivery and enhance citizen engagement through AI, was inaugurated by Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh on September 30, 2024.
“BharatGen is a proud example of India’s commitment to advancing homegrown technologies. It positions India as a global leader in the field of Generative AI, much like our achievements with UPI and other innovations,” said Dr. Singh during the launch.
Spearheaded by IIT Bombay under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), BharatGen focuses on creating AI models tailored for India’s diverse languages and cultural contexts.
The project is being executed by the TIH Foundation for IoT and IOE at IIT Bombay, in collaboration with several leading academic institutions, including IIT Bombay, IIIT Hyderabad, IIT Mandi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, IIM Indore, and IIT Madras. Present at the event were IIT Bombay Director, Prof Shireesh Kedare, and a consortium of faculty members led by Prof Ganesh Ramakrishnan.
“BharatGen is not just about foundational AI technology, rather it facilitates a comprehensive and inclusive ecosystem. This AI will create new opportunities in important sectors like education, health, agriculture, and industry,” Ramakrishnan, Lead of the BharatGen initiative, told AIM exclusively.
“Startups, researchers, government agencies, and ordinary citizens will have the opportunity to be a part of this ecosystem, creating a collaborative, innovation-led, and empowered future.”
According to Ramakrishnan, BharatGen will capture the diversity and cultural heritage of our country through the Bharat Datasagar. This project will not only symbolise technological advancement but will also become a means of bringing our local knowledge and experiences into the mainstream of AI.
“It has been developed in partnership with leading educational institutions in India, which will further strengthen this project. This project is a major step towards digital inclusion, where every region, every language, and every citizen will be equally connected to digital services. This is a strong effort towards fulfilling the dream of a self-reliant India, where technology is being developed in India, for India, by India,” explained Ramakrishnan.
BharatGen stands out with four key features: its multilingual and multimodal foundation models, the use of datasets specific to India for model building and training, its open-source platform, and the creation of an ecosystem for generative AI research across the nation.
The project, expected to be completed by 2026, will benefit government, private, and academic institutions, fostering AI research and innovation in the country.
By supporting both text and speech, BharatGen will cover the vast linguistic diversity of India. Its multilingual datasets will capture the intricacies of Indian languages, which are often overlooked in global AI models.
Unlike models that depend on international datasets, BharatGen focuses on collecting and curating data specific to India, ensuring accurate representation of the country’s languages, dialects, and cultural context. This focus on data sovereignty reinforces India’s control over its digital assets and narrative.
Professor Abhay Karandikar, Secretary of DST, emphasised, “BharatGen is aligned with the goal of making AI accessible to all citizens, addressing national priorities like cultural preservation and inclusive technology development.”
BharatGen’s roadmap includes extensive AI model development, experimentation, and scaling AI adoption across industries. The initiative also aims to democratise AI access, empowering startups and researchers to develop applications efficiently.
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