New Delhi | June 2, 2025 — In a landmark step for India’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) journey, Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh today launched ‘BharatGen’, India’s first indigenously developed Multimodal Large Language Model (LLM) for Indian languages, at the BharatGen Summit 2025 — the country’s largest AI and LLM-focused summit and hackathon.
Backed by the Government of India and developed under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), BharatGen is set to transform how AI serves Indians, by providing support in 22 regional languages through text, speech, and image inputs.
What is BharatGen?
BharatGen is an AI platform built to be:
-
Ethical
-
Inclusive
-
Multilingual
-
Rooted in Indian values
It is designed to address India’s unique challenges across healthcare, education, agriculture, governance, and more, using AI that speaks the people’s language — literally and figuratively.
The platform is being developed by a consortium of top academic institutions and tech innovators, led by the TIH Foundation for IoT and IoE at IIT Bombay, and is supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
A Doctor Who Speaks Your Language
Dr. Jitendra Singh shared a moving example from his own constituency: AI-powered telemedicine where a virtual doctor converses fluently in the local dialect.
“This not only builds trust but also gives a psychological boost to patients in remote areas,” he said, describing how these AI doctors are already connecting rural patients with superspeciality hospitals.
Such innovations are helping to bridge the urban-rural healthcare divide, showing how AI can have a real human impact.
A National Mission for AI
Calling BharatGen a national mission, Dr. Singh said it represents India’s ambition to lead in responsible and people-centric AI development, aligned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “India’s Techade.”
He highlighted the role of AI in:
-
Enhancing citizen services like CPGRAMS (India’s online public grievance portal)
-
Empowering local entrepreneurship through schemes like PM MUDRA, PM SVANidhi, and PM Vishwakarma Yojana
-
Supporting grassroots innovations such as agri-tech startups and lavender farming in Jammu & Kashmir
NEP 2020 and the Future of Learning
The Minister also praised the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which encourages students to combine technology with humanities, enabling holistic, interdisciplinary learning.
“Today’s students can blend AI with ethics, tech with tradition. That’s what BharatGen is all about,” said Dr. Singh.
This flexible learning environment is expected to create more employable graduates and innovative thinkers.
Youth at the Heart of BharatGen
The summit featured the launch of the Generative AI Hackathon 2025, where students and young innovators are being challenged to develop AI solutions to real-world problems — from smart farming to personalized education.
BharatGen is supported by 25 Technology Innovation Hubs (TIHs), of which four have been upgraded to Technology Translational Research Parks (TTRPs), enabling research to be converted into practical applications.
The mission rests on four key pillars:
-
Technology Development
-
Entrepreneurship
-
Human Resource Development
-
International Collaboration
Top Officials and Industry Leaders Join Hands
The BharatGen Summit was attended by senior government officials and leading industry experts, including:
-
Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, DST
-
V. Srinivas, Secretary, DARPG
-
Rajit Punhani, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development
-
Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, MEITY
-
Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-founder, Infosys
-
Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Principal Investigator, BharatGen
Their collaboration signals a unified commitment to building an AI ecosystem that reflects India’s linguistic richness, ethical values, and inclusive vision.
