IBM and BharatGen are joining forces to build open source AI models tailored to India’s diverse languages, aiming to expand digital equity and accelerate adoption.
IBM and BharatGen have announced a strategic partnership to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in India through sovereign, open source multimodal and large language models (LLMs) tailored to the nation’s linguistic and cultural diversity.
BharatGen is also expected to be selected for the second phase of the IndiaAI Mission, alongside seven other firms, in a move that will significantly advance efforts to create open source foundational models for Indian developers and researchers, according to the Department of Science and Technology.
The collaboration merges IBM’s expertise in data, governance, and model training with BharatGen’s mandate to build inclusive, India-centric AI systems. Core initiatives include developing and scaling multimodal and language-specific AI models for education, agriculture, healthcare, banking, and citizen services.
The partners will also build solution templates for Indic use cases, create domain-specific demonstrations on IBM Watsonx and Red Hat OpenShift AI, establish scalable Indic data pipelines, and implement governance frameworks and benchmarks for responsible AI.
“At BharatGen, we have been building sovereign AI models and the ecosystem that reflects the linguistic richness, cultural nuances, and diverse needs of our people,” said Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan of BharatGen. “This collaboration with IBM allows us to bring scalable architectures and systems for India. With IBM’s enterprise-grade platforms and our commitment to public-good AI, we are on a path to drive transformative solutions for empowering India’s digital journey.”
Sandip Patel, Managing Director of IBM India and South Asia, added: “Through our collaboration with BharatGen, we aim to advance sovereign AI capabilities that reflect India’s diversity and deliver meaningful impact across sectors.”
BharatGen, operating under IIT Bombay’s Technology Innovation Hub and backed by the Department of Science and Technology, is tasked with developing efficient AI models for Indian languages, building a multilingual data repository, and strengthening India’s AI ecosystem through public-private partnerships and talent development.
