Made in India, Made for India: The new AI model supports 22 regional languages and emphasizes inclusivity, ethics and cultural relevance.
In a longstanding aim toward extending AI's reach into the deepest corners of the nation, the Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh, cuts the ribbon placed in front of 'BharatGen,' India's first indigenously made, government-funded multimodal LLM, at the BharatGen Summit held in New Delhi on Monday. This summit checked another goal in India's path towards an inclusive and ethics centric AI innovation.The BharatGen AI model was conceived under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NMICPS) and steered by the TIH Foundation for the IoT and IoE at IIT Bombay. It fuses text, speech, and image modalities to deliver solutions in 22 Indian languages. 'We hope our efforts toward creating a sovereign Generative AI ecosystem and milestones such as the release of such LLM model checkpoints, serves as a foundation for India-specific solutions.' said professor Ganesh Ramakrishnan, from IIT Bombay and the lead of BharatGenThis initiative, supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), collaborates with leading academic institutions and innovators to create a model that is deemed ethical, inclusive, and multilingual and inculcates innate Indian values and ethos, as described by Dr. Singh.At the summit, Dr. Singh elucidated the model's potential to transform sectors like healthcare, education, agriculture, and governance by providing solutions that are specific to the region. This multilingual capability of the AI model enables the democratization of superspecialty hospital services to extend into the rural areas of the country via AI-driven telemedicine and doctors communicating to the patients in their native languages. 'This builds trust and has a placebo-like psychological effect, connecting remote regions with superspecialty hospitals.'This model also resonates with (PM) Narendra Modi's vision of 'India's Techade,' along with Dr. Singh emphasizing innovation for inclusion. 'Our goal is not just to build AI models but to provide resources that startups and system integrators can leverage', said professor Ramakrishnan. This statement underlines BharatGen's role as not merely a technology release but a foundational tool for building India-specific AI solutions across domains.Dr. Singh also sheds light on the role of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (NRF) in boosting India's R&D ecosystem and highlighted flagship schemes like PM MUDRA Yojana, PM SVANidhi, and PM Vishwakarma Yojana, which support micro-entrepreneurs, artisans, and street vendors.This summit further celebrated NEP (National Education Policy) 2020 for introducing interdisciplinary learning, enabling students to blend humanities and technology for enhanced employability and innovation. Agri-tech start-ups, including lavender cultivation in Jammu and Kashmir, were recognized as well as proof of innovation thriving beyond the glass windows of urban IT hubs.The launching of BharatGen is a pivotal moment in the country's AI journey, for it aims to create technology that resonates with the nation's diverse linguistic and cultural interests. By blending AI into various sectors and promoting inclusivity alongside innovation, BharatGen moves toward a goal that strives to build an indestructible bridge that covers the gap between the citizens' empowerment and the digital divide. ( source
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