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Recently, India launched the BharatGen initiative to make generative AI available to citizens in different Indian languages.

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This initiative is the world's first government-funded multimodal large language model (LLM) project focused on creating efficient and inclusive AI in Indian languages.

Led by IIT Bombay under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), the initiative will create generative AI systems capable of producing high-quality text and multimodal content in multiple Indian languages.

• NM-ICPS was approved in 2018 for a period of five years to promote translational research in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS).

The four key distinguishing features of BharatGen are – 

• the multilingual and multimodal nature of foundation models; 
• Bhartiya data set-based building, and training; 
• open-source platform, and 
• development of an ecosystem of generative AI research in the country.

Along with BharatGen, four thematic hubs (T-Hubs) for Quantum Computing, Quantum Communication, Quantum Sensing and Metrology, and Quantum Materials and Devices, under the National Quantum Mission (NQM) were also launched.

The four T-Hubs have been set up at 

• Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru. 
• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras along with Centre for Development of Telematics New Delhi.
• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. 
• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.

Each T-Hub will operate under the Hub-Spoke-Spike model, supporting a cluster-based network of research projects (Spokes) and individual research groups (Spikes) alongside these central hubs.

Significance of the BharatGen initiative

• The initiative will create generative AI systems that can generate high-quality text and multimodal content in various Indian languages.
• It will deliver generative AI models and their applications as a public good by prioritizing India's socio-cultural and linguistic diversity.
• Open-source foundational models of the initiative will address India’s broader needs such as social equity, cultural preservation, and linguistic diversity, while ensuring that generative AI reaches all segments of society.
• It aligns with the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat by creating foundational AI models specifically tailored for India.