Latest news with #BharatGen
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Business Standard
2 hours ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Google, IIT Bombay team up to build Indic language AI speech models
Google is joining hands with BharatGen at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay to develop speech recognition and text-to-speech models in Indian languages. The announcement was made by Manish Gupta, senior director for India and Asia-Pacific (APAC) at Google DeepMind, on Wednesday, according to a report by the Press Trust of India. He was speaking at the Google I/O Connect India 2025 in Bengaluru, where the company unveiled a range of new initiatives and AI tools aimed at supporting India's growing developer and startup community. BharatGen: A landmark Indian AI project In 2024, the Indian government launched BharatGen, an initiative to bring generative AI to citizens in multiple Indian languages. At the launch event, MoS Jitendra Singh had described it as the world's first state-funded project of this kind. Led by IIT Bombay under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), the project is developing advanced AI systems that can generate high-quality text and multimodal content in Indian languages. Real-world impact of AI in India At the event, Gupta also highlighted India's progress in using AI to create practical solutions that are 'benefiting millions of people and businesses both within the country and globally'. 'For instance, 150,000 researchers across India are using AlphaFold to help solve some of humanity's most complex challenges, from autoimmune diseases to cancer,' Gupta said. He also mentioned Google's recent announcement that the AI Pro Plan subscription will be made available free of charge for students across India for one year. According to Gupta, the company's Gemma models are also playing a key role in advancing India's AI goals. He said, 'Sarvam, Soket AI and Gnani, which have been selected by the India AI Mission, are building the next generation of Make in India AI models based on Gemma.' Indian startups building on Google's AI models Google has been working closely with Sarvam, the startup behind the Sarvam-Translate model, which uses Gemma to translate long-form content between languages, Gupta added. At the event, Google also revealed that it is expanding access to up-to-date and detailed information on Google Maps, which now includes over 250 million places. This will help developers design better generative AI features. Currently, India has the second-largest number of active developers on Google Play worldwide, with more than 1 million developer jobs created in 2024. To support this growing talent base, Google launched the 'Google Play x Unity Game Developer Training' — a free and globally recognised training and certification programme for both aspiring and professional game developers in India. The company also announced the Gen AI Exchange Hackathon, which aims to give developers an opportunity to apply their AI expertise to real-world challenges, innovate, and build new solutions.
India Gazette
12-06-2025
- Business
- India Gazette
PM Narendra Modi lauds India's technological, digital progress in past 11 years
New Delhi [India], June 12 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hailed India's digital and technological progress stating that the country is making remarkable progress in innovation and application of technology. The Prime Minister highlighted that that the digital progress is also strengthening country's efforts towards becoming self reliant in the technology sector. Taking to his X social media platform PM Modi shared a post by MyGovIndia, which talks about how India could become the next technology powerhouse of the world and the steps taken by the Union Government in the past 11 years in the sector. 'Powered by the youth of India, we are making remarkable progress in innovation and application of technology. It is also strengthening our efforts to become self-reliant and a global tech powerhouse', PM Modi said. India has recorded a surge of 2500 times in the volume of UPI transaction with data showing that UPI transaction which was at 0.93 crore in April 2017 increased to 1867.70 crore until April 2025. India is also leading the digital payment revolution wherein more than Rs 260 lakh crore transactions have been processed with Rs 18,600 crore transactions annually. UPI's acceptance in the world has also increased and it is live in seven countries including UAE, Singapore, Nepal, France, Mauritius, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. India also stands as world's cheapest mobile data providers with more than 94 crore broadband connections and more than 120 crore telephone subscribers. A total of 2.18 lakh gram panchayats have been connected through optical fiber network under the Bharat Net scheme and 6.92 lakh km of fiber cable has been laid. The Union Government has also showcased interest in Artificial Intelligence with three AI Centres of Excellence to be setup in top educational institutions. India is also working over the development of AI models such as BharatGen, Sarvam-1, Chitralekha and Hanooman's Everest 1.0. On june 10, Prime Minister Modi shared an article on the government's commitment in advancing India's digital connectivity over the past 11 years. Sharing an article by Union Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia, PM Modi said, 'Our government has been constantly striving to provide world-class facilities in digital connectivity to the country. In his article, Union Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia has explained in detail how the success achieved in this in the last 11 years is inspiring us to move forward even faster in this direction.' In his article, Scindia elaborated on how villages have started telling the story of digital revolution. Scindia said on X, 'In the last 11 years, the historic decisions taken in the telecom sector and the Postal Department, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, have given rise to a digital revolution, connecting not only cities, but also villages, forests and borders.' (ANI)
Economist
12-06-2025
- Business
- Economist
Can India be an AI winner?
India is hooked on artificial intelligence. The country is the fastest-growing market for ChatGPT. By some estimates it accounts for the largest share of users, or about 14% of the total. Soon, the popular bot may have local competition. On May 23rd Sarvam AI, a Bangalore-based startup, unveiled an 'Indic' large language model (LLM) capable of conversing in Indian languages. Early this month, Bharat Gen, a publicly funded model, made its debut. Both aim to help users engage with AI in the languages they speak, from Hindi to Malayalam.
Time of India
12-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Made in India, Made for India: The new AI model supports 22 regional languages and emphasizes inclusivity, ethics and cultural relevance.
Live Events 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 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. 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 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 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 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
The Hindu
12-06-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
PM Modi lauds India's technological, digital progress in past 11 years
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (June 12, 2025) hailed India's digital and technological progress stating that the country is making remarkable progress in innovation and application of technology. The Prime Minister highlighted that that the digital progress is also strengthening country's efforts towards becoming self reliant in the technology sector. Taking to his X social media platform PM Modi shared a post by MyGovIndia, which talks about how India could become the next technology powerhouse of the world and the steps taken by the Union Government in the past 11 years in the sector. Leveraging the power of technology has brought innumerable benefits for people. Service delivery and transparency have been greatly boosted. Furthermore, technology has become a means of empowering the lives of the poorest of poor. #11YearsOfDigitalIndiahttps:// — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 12, 2025 "Powered by the youth of India, we are making remarkable progress in innovation and application of technology. It is also strengthening our efforts to become self-reliant and a global tech powerhouse", PM Modi said. India has recorded a surge of 2500 times in the volume of UPI transaction with data showing that UPI transaction which was at 0.93 crore in April 2017 increased to 1867.70 crore until April is also leading the digital payment revolution wherein more than Rs 260 lakh crore transactions have been processed with Rs 18,600 crore transactions annually. UPI's acceptance in the world has also increased and it is live in seven countries including UAE, Singapore, Nepal, France, Mauritius, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. India also stands as world's cheapest mobile data providers with more than 94 crore broadband connections and more than 120 crore telephone subscribers. A total of 2.18 lakh gram panchayats have been connected through optical fiber network under the Bharat Net scheme and 6.92 lakh km of fiber cable has been laid.T The Union Government has also showcased interest in Artificial Intelligence with three AI Centres of Excellence to be setup in top educational institutions. India is also working over the development of AI models such as BharatGen, Sarvam-1, Chitralekha and Hanooman's Everest 1.0. On june 10, Prime Minister Modi shared an article on the government's commitment in advancing India's digital connectivity over the past 11 years. PM shares an article by Union Minister Scindia Sharing an article by Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, PM Modi said, "Our government has been constantly striving to provide world-class facilities in digital connectivity to the country. In his article, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has explained in detail how the success achieved in this in the last 11 years is inspiring us to move forward even faster in this direction. "In his article, Mr. Scindia elaborated on how villages have started telling the story of digital said on X, "In the last 11 years, the historic decisions taken in the telecom sector and the Postal Department, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, have given rise to a digital revolution, connecting not only cities, but also villages, forests and borders."
