India hungry for its own AI, says head of BharatGen

The head of BharatGen, a pioneering Indian AI initiative, recently emphasized India’s strong drive for sovereign artificial intelligence. This effort is motivated by both nationalist ambitions and practical business advantages, reflecting India’s desire to build AI technologies rooted in its own cultural, linguistic, and governance contexts. BharatGen is part of a broader government-backed push—under the India AI Mission and supported by the Department of Science & Technology—to develop foundational AI models entirely within India. These models aim to address the country’s diverse language landscape and societal needs, providing inclusive and accessible AI services.

At recent summits, including the India AI Impact Summit, BharatGen alongside other homegrown projects like Sarvam AI and Gnani.ai, unveiled large-scale AI models designed to be trained, deployed, and governed within India. This sovereign approach protects national digital sovereignty, ensuring Indian control over AI functionalities and reducing reliance on global tech giants.

BharatGen’s roadmap includes building advanced capabilities in conversational AI, speech recognition, text-to-speech synthesis, and multilingual translation—all tailored to India’s knowledge systems and languages. With access to India-centric datasets and open-source models, BharatGen fosters innovation and democratizes AI development in India. Its development aligns with broader government goals to combat bias in AI and embed transparency and trust, ensuring India’s AI future is sustainable and culturally aligned while promoting indigenous innovation.