India’s BharatGen AI System Initiative

Overview: India has launched BharatGen, a sovereign multimodal AI initiative designed to support all 22 official Indian languages. Developed under the IndiaAI Mission, the project is led by IIT Bombay with major government backing.

Riyaz

Dec-09-2025

The BharatGen project in India is a significant step toward building an independent and non-discriminatory artificial intelligence environment. BharatGen is a project launched within the IndiaAI Mission and aims at developing localised multimodal Large Language Models that can comprehend written and spoken words as well as images and provide support in all the 22 official languages of India. It is a project that is being built by a consortium of major academic and research institutions that work to construct AI systems in accordance with the cultural and linguistic diversity of India. BharatGen, with the substantial government support, is planned to be the means of democratizing AI access to citizens, startups, governmental and new digital innovations nationwide.

India Launches BharatGen: A New Era for Indigenous AI Development

BharatGen is a sovereign AI project in India, whose foundation has been laid by IIT Bombay, the primary institution to institute core AI models.
India is funding large language models, and multilingual, multimodal ones, in the IndiaAI Mission through significant funding by the Government, through MeitY and the Department of Science and Technology.
BharatGen will support over 22 Indian languages, and will combine text, speech and image features with the cultural and linguistic diversity of India.
Another objective of the project is to establish a big India-centric data set, which can enhance innovation and promote startups in the AI ecosystem.

Expected Question About Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Question	Options	Answer
Which IIT is leading the BharatGen AI initiative?	A) IIT Delhi B) IIT Bombay C) IIT Kharagpur D) IIT Madras	B) IIT Bombay
Under which mission is BharatGen funded by the government?	A) Digital India Mission B) IndiaAI Mission C) National AI Mission D) Bharat AI Mission	B) IndiaAI Mission
BharatGen aims to support how many official Indian languages?	A) 15 B) 18 C) 22 D) 25	C) 22
BharatGen is an example of which type of AI model?	A) Text-only LLM B) Multimodal LLM C) Image-only AI D) Robotics AI	B) Multimodal LLM
Who is considered the “Father of AI”?	A) Alan Turing B) John McCarthy C) Marvin Minsky D) Geoffrey Hinton	B) John McCarthy
In which year was the term “Artificial Intelligence” first coined?	A) 1946 B) 1950 C) 1956 D) 1960	C) 1956
Which of the following is an example of Narrow AI?	A) Siri B) General AI C) Super AI D) Autonomous reasoning AI	A) Siri
What does NLP stand for in AI applications?	A) Natural Language Processing B) Neural Logic Programming C) Numeric Language Parsing D) Nonlinear Processing	A) Natural Language Processing
Which programming language is most commonly used for AI development?	A) Python B) Java C) C++ D) Fortran	A) Python
BharatGen’s data repository is called what?	A) Bharat Data Bank B) Bharat Knowledge Hub C) Bharat Data Sagar D) Bharat AI Vault	C) Bharat Data Sagar

Conclusion

The BharatGen AI System Initiative makes India a leader in the development of artificial intelligence locally. It is focused on making AI more accessible to the public by releasing multimodal Large Language Models and supporting all 22 official languages, as well as providing help to startups, government services, and academic institutions to build a sovereign, inclusive AI ecosystem.