India Pioneers Sovereign AI with BharatGen Initiative

In a significant move, the Indian government has launched BharatGen, a pioneering project aimed at developing indigenous artificial intelligence models. The initiative, revealed by S Krishnan, Secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, emphasizes India's efforts to address bias and maintain control over AI systems trained primarily on Indian data.

Krishnan highlighted the vital importance of sovereignty in AI technologies, noting that India, given its size and diversity, requires AI models free from external control. This comes after debates on whether to develop homegrown models or rely on open-source international ones, considering the costs and time involved in indigenous AI development.

The BharatGen project, launched in October 2024, focuses on creating AI models capable of handling India's vast linguistic diversity. The initiative aims to offer services, including Automatic Speech Recognition and Text-to-Speech for multiple Indian languages, thereby ensuring broader accessibility and representation.