BharatGen to complete AI text models for all 22 Indian languages by February-end

The government’s sovereign multilingual artificial intelligence platform BharatGen is expected to complete text-based AI models for all 22 official Indian languages by the end of February, Union Minister for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Replying to a question from BJP member Bhubaneswar Kalita , Singh said BharatGen’s development is a dynamic and evolving process, with scope for inclusion of more languages and dialects in the future.

“We have already completed 15 languages. We will be completing all 22 official languages within this month itself. Text modules for all the languages will be ready, while 15 languages will also have speech and vision modules,” the minister said.

Launched in October 2024 , BharatGen is a government-backed initiative aimed at creating a sovereign AI engine tailored specifically for India’s linguistic diversity. The platform is designed to support key services such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) , Text-to-Speech (TTS) , and multimodal AI applications for Indian languages.

The minister, however, did not disclose a language-wise breakup of the 15 languages that already have speech and vision capabilities.

According to the government, BharatGen is being developed through a consortium-based model led by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) , with support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser . Several premier academic institutions, including IITs, IISc Bengaluru and IIIT Hyderabad , are involved in the project along with public-funded research bodies and startups.

While no separate budget has been earmarked exclusively for BharatGen, officials have said the project is being funded through existing allocations under the Digital India Programme , the National Language Translation Mission (Bhashini) , and the broader IndiaAI Mission , which has an approved outlay of ₹10,371.92 crore .

The government has positioned BharatGen as a critical component of India’s push towards AI sovereignty , with an emphasis on domestic data hosting, inclusivity, and reduced dependence on foreign AI models for language-based services.

Officials have indicated that BharatGen will play a key role in improving access to digital services, governance platforms, and AI-driven applications for citizens across linguistic regions.