Digital India BHASHINI, AISF join hands to boost language technology ecosystem in Assam
New Delhi, June 22
In a boost to promote language technology and multilingual artificial intelligence solutions in Assam, the Digital India BHASHINI Division and the Assam Innovation & Startup Foundation have signed an MoU, as per a statement by the Ministry of Electronics & IT.
According to the release, the MoU aims to promote language technology, generative AI solutions and governance in regional languages, while strengthening innovation and digital inclusion across Assam.
The release further added the partnership will focus on language technologies, multilingual digital solutions, artificial intelligence, innovation, entrepreneurship, startup ecosystem development and capacity building. It aims to expand access to digital services and promote technological innovation through the use of Indian languages.
"Under the MoU, DIBD and AISF will collaborate under the BHASHINI Rajyam initiative to facilitate multilingual access to AISF programmes, initiatives, digital platforms, and services through BHASHINI technologies," it said.
Under the partnership, the two organisations will work on integrating language translation APIs into digital platforms, enhancing translation services in Assamese and other regional languages, developing voice-enabled solutions, and strengthening linguistic data collection through Bhashadaan, according to the release.
"The collaboration will focus on the integration of DIBD's Language Translation APIs into official platforms and services, enhancement of translation services in Assamese and other local languages, development of reference applications and voice-enabled solutions, and enabling the collection, curation, and dissemination of linguistic data through Bhashadaan," the release added.
A major focus of this collaboration "will be to energise Assam's startup and innovation ecosystem by enabling startups, entrepreneurs, innovators, researchers, and academic institutions to leverage BHASHINI's language technology stack for building innovative multilingual AI use cases."
The partnership also aims to promote the practical use of language technologies across sectors and create opportunities for innovators to develop solutions tailored to local languages and regional needs.
— ANI
Reader Comments
Interesting initiative. We need more efforts like this to include regional languages in the digital space. India's tech growth shouldn't leave behind the 60% who don't speak Hindi or English.
Bhashini is doing good work, but I hope this isn't just another MoU that gathers dust. The real test will be in the implementation – can they actually get voice-enabled solutions working in remote areas of Assam where internet is patchy?
Great to see investment in AI that respects linguistic diversity. Assam has so many dialects too – hope they include not just standard Assamese but also Sadri, Deuri, Mising etc. 🤞
Good news for startups in Assam! The BHASHINI API stack could help local entrepreneurs build apps for everything from farming advice to healthcare in Assamese. This is how you make "Digital India" truly inclusive.
One concern: will the AI models be trained on enough data? Assamese has fewer digital resources compared to Hindi or Tamil. Bhashadaan's crowdsourcing approach is smart, but they need to incentivise contributions. Otherwise it'll be like most government portals – launched with fanfare, little substance.
We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.