New Delhi, February 8: Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Minister of Electronics and Information TECHNOLOGY, announced on Sunday that the Sovereign Artificial Intelligence (AI) Model Strategy is yielding positive results. He praised an advanced model released by the domestic startup, Sarvam AI.
Last year, this startup was selected to create the country’s first foundational AI model. Out of 67 proposals, Sarvam AI was shortlisted to develop India’s first indigenous foundational model.
Vaishnaw stated in a post on X, “Even those who have criticized the advanced model released by Sarvam are now acknowledging its technology. Our talented young engineers are working on innovations in material science, healthcare, and cybersecurity that the world will recognize as groundbreaking models.”
Sarvam AI has developed top-notch text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and OCR models for Indian languages.
In December, Sarvam AI co-founder Pratyush Kumar showcased multilingual AI systems under the India AI Mission, which included India’s first sovereign foundational large language model (LLM) for Indian languages.
Taking a significant step to strengthen India’s AI ecosystem, the Modi government approved the India AI Mission with an allocation of ₹10,300 crores for 2024. This funding will support various components of the India AI Mission over the next five years.
Last month, Prime Minister Modi urged startups to utilize AI for social welfare. While chairing a roundtable with Indian AI startups at his residence on Lok Kalyan Marg, he emphasized making AI affordable, inclusive, and transparent.
PM Modi also announced that India will host the ‘India AI Impact Summit 2026’ from February 16 to 20, which will position the country as a key player in the technology sector. He suggested that Indian AI models should be unique and promote local content and regional languages.