Overview On November 25, 2025 , Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh announced "BharatGen" as India’s first sovereign multilingual and multimodal AI driven Large Language Model during his visit to IIT Bombay . This initiative is backed by significant government support to build India’s sovereign AI capabilities across various modalities. Key Developments Launch of BharatGen BharatGen is designed to support over 22 Indian languages , integrating text, speech, and document vision models. This aims to create an inclusive digital future where every Indian language and regional context is represented in the country’s AI capabilities. Government Support and Funding The project is supported by ₹1,293 Crore government funding. ₹235 crore is channelled through the Technology Innovation Hub at IIT Bombay under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) of the Department of Science and Technology. Collaborative Research The consortium, led by IIT Bombay , includes leading institutions such as IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IIIT Hyderabad, IIT Mandi, IIT Hyderabad, IIM Indore, IIT Kharagpur and IIIT Delhi . This collaboration signifies a new era of mission-driven research in deep-tech innovation. Bharat Data Sagar Bharat Data Sagar is an ambitious data initiative to ensure India’s complete ownership and control over its digital knowledge resources. It involves large-scale, India-centric data collection and curation across sectors to capture India’s lived realities, cultural nuances, and regional diversity. Key Models Released Param-1: A foundational text model of 2.9 billion parameters trained on 7.5 trillion tokens , with over one-third of the training data representing Indian content. Shrutam: A 30-million-parameter Automatic Speech Recognition system. Sooktam: A 150-million-parameter Text-to-Speech model available in nine Indic languages. Patram: India’s first document-vision model with seven billion parameters , trained on 2.5 billion tokens , designed to understand and interpret complex documents in Indian formats. Proof-of-Concept Applications Krishi Sathi: A voice-enabled WhatsApp advisory tool for farmers. e-VikrAI: Automatically generates product descriptions from a single image for small sellers. Docbodh: A document Q&A platform powered by Patram that makes complex texts understandable for citizens. Industry Partnerships BharatGen is being strengthened through deep industry partnerships with IBM, Zoho, NASSCOM and several ministries, including the Ministry of Water and Sanitation (WASH) , as well as with state governments such as Maharashtra . UPSC Relevance This initiative is highly relevant for GS3 (Science and Technology) , particularly in the context of AI development, data sovereignty, and digital inclusion. It also touches upon GS2 (Government Policies and Interventions) regarding initiatives to promote technology and innovation. The cultural aspect of representing Indian languages aligns with GS1 (Indian Culture) . Important Facts BharatGen aims to support over 22 Indian languages . The project is supported by ₹1,293 Crore government funding. Param-1 is trained on 7.5 trillion tokens . Patram has seven billion parameters .