Government of India Launches BharatGen, First Government-Funded Multimodal AI Initiative [Video]

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, …