VMPL
New Delhi [India], June 9: The BharatGen Summit & Hackathon, held on 2nd-3rd June at DAIC, Delhi, marked the launch of BharatGen's suite of AI models on Speech (Shrutam), Text (Param), Document vision (Patram) and Text to speech (Sooktam). This work is funded by the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) under the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
The summit was graced by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Hon'ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Government of India as Chief Guest.
Dr. Jitendra Singh, described BharatGen as a "national mission to create AI that is ethical, inclusive, multilingual, and deeply rooted in Indian values and ethos."
Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, pointed out, "With initiatives like BharatGen, we have chartered an ambitious journey of India's own Large Language Model. This is India's opportunity to build, lead, and inspire on the global AI stage".
The summit brought together a stellar lineup of visionaries and thought leaders.
Their presence underscored a shared national aspiration--to champion the development of locally trained Large Language Models (LLMs) that reflect India's unique linguistic and cultural fabric. The dialogue was not just about catching up with global AI innovation; it was about defining a future where India leads from the front.
Shri. V. Srinivas, Secretary DARPG, Shri Rajit Punhani, Secretary, MSDE, Shri. Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, MeiTy, and Dr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-founder Infosys and Chairman, Mission Government Board, NM-ICPS, underscored the importance of BharatGen as a national initiative. The event was also graced by the directors of IIT-Bombay, Shrish Kedare and IIT-Madras, V Kamakoti.
Rishi Bal, Executive VP, BharatGen said, "At the heart of BharatGen is a bold vision: to build truly sovereign AI for India and in India"
"Today's launch is a pivotal moment in our journey to build a self-reliant AI future for India. BharatGen is more than just a suite of models; it's a catalyst for innovation, a platform for collaboration, and a commitment to developing the entire AI stack - from data to deployment. We are dedicated to fostering an ecosystem where India can emerge as a true leader in the global AI arena."
The event underscored a unified vision: to position India as a global leader in Artificial Intelligence. The emphasis was on fostering collaboration between government, industry, and academia to build open, scalable, and responsible AI solutions that cater to India's unique needs and contribute to its socio-economic progress.
Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Principal Investigator of BharatGen, shared the initiative's bold vision and the milestones that have been achieved, emphasizing the need to lower the barriers to AI innovation in India.
"Pre-training large models is a monumental task--one that often remains out of reach for many," he noted. "BharatGen is rising to that challenge by building foundational models and new AI techniques that are rooted in the linguistic and cultural depth of India--models that are adaptable, inclusive, and ready to power solutions across diverse sectors."
The models are available at Huggingface: https://huggingface.co/bharatgenai
The event also marked the grand finale of a thoughtfully designed two-month Hackathon, uniting student innovators from 21 states and 279 teams. Their mission: to craft novel, India-centric solutions for real-world challenges--fueling the future of AI from the grassroots up.
Kiran Shesh, CEO of TIH at IIT Bombay who were the organizers of the event, felicitated the gathering, reinforcing the shared vision to democratize GenAI and develop solutions that truly reflect India's diversity and needs.
"We envision an India where AI is not just a technological milestone, but an integral part of everyday life--empowering people through seamless human-tech collaboration," he shared.
The summit emerged as a unique convergence of top-tier AI thought leadership and grassroots innovation. With enthusiastic participation from Nvidia, Intel, Nasscom, IBM and sponsorship from global tech leaders like AWS, Neysa, and AppSquadz, alongside hundreds of researchers & students from across the country, the event delivered a compelling mix of strategic vision and real-time problem-solving -- underscoring India's growing momentum in building GenAI for Bharat.
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