India is taking remarkable steps in artificial intelligence (AI) with the launch of BharatGen on Monday, 30 September 2024. The world’s first state-funded generative AI project is focused on Indian languages. Led by IIT Bombay under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems, BharatGen aims to democratise AI with open-source models, enabling the creation of high-quality text and multimodal content across various languages. The initiative positions India at the forefront of AI and quantum innovation, with the new quantum hubs under the National Quantum Mission (NQM) driving advanced research and development.
Further, more initiatives are launched that align with India’s broader AI vision with Tech Frontier, aiming to build an AI infrastructure that supports the masses. Vivek Raghavan, who is the founder of Sarvam AI, is thinking of developing voice-based models for India that can understand and speak local languages and dialects. At the EkStep Foundation event, People+ai focused on building population-scale AI infrastructure, creating communities, and promoting awareness about AI’s potential in India. Projects like Jan Ki Baat and Open Cloud Compute, alongside a growing network of industry professionals, are helping shape India’s AI community.
Co-founders Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar are focused on developing generative AI tailored for a billion Indians. The company has introduced a range of voice-based AI tools for enterprise customers, tackling common use cases. It has launched an open-source text-based language model called Sarvam 2B, trained on 2 billion parameters to emphasise Indian languages. These initiatives are moving India’s Future in AI, fostering innovation across sectors, and driving economic growth.
