National language AI platform BHASHINI has transitioned from rule-based systems to AI-powered inclusive engines, offering language services to all citizens. The Digital India BHASHINI Division at IT Ministry, in partnership with Wadhwani AI, organized the ‘BHASHINI Samudaye: Strengthening India’s Language AI Ecosystem’ event. This initiative aims to enhance India’s language AI ecosystem through collaborative engagement and participatory governance.
Amitabh Nag, CEO of Digital India BHASHINI Division (MeitY), emphasized the importance of building a cohesive ecosystem involving data creators, annotators, translators, developers, users, and governments. Professor Girish Nath Jha from Jawaharlal Nehru University highlighted the significance of structured dataset creation and community participation in developing AI systems that cater to India’s linguistic diversity.
The workshop brought together government agencies, academic institutions, civil society organizations, and industry stakeholders to advance language AI initiatives in India. It focused on exploring use cases and strategies for co-creating, governing, and scaling language AI solutions under the National Language Translation Mission (NLTM). BHASHINI’s comprehensive approach to translation covers various levels, including sentence-level, discourse-level, and conversational translation across all 22 scheduled languages.
Shobha L., Member Research Staff at AU-KBC Research Centre, praised BHASHINI’s efforts in ensuring inclusivity by addressing challenges in Dravidian languages. She emphasized the importance of expanded datasets and continued collaboration to support languages lacking Sanskrit equivalents. BHASHINI, in collaboration with the Gates Foundation and Civic Data Lab, introduced the Dataset Onboarding Supporting Team (DOST) to facilitate the identification and integration of valuable datasets into BHASHINI and AI Kosh.
