New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS) Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday said that sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) model strategy is delivering results, as he praised an advanced model released by homegrown startup Sarvam AI.

Last year, the startup was selected to build the country’s first artificial intelligence (AI) foundational model. Out of the 67 proposals, Sarvam AI was shortlisted to build India’s first indigenous foundational model.

“Even the most critical reviewers are praising the technologically advanced model released by Sarvam as a part of our AI mission,” Vaishnaw said in an X post.

He further stated that in parallel, “our smart young engineers are working on innovations in materials science, healthcare and cybersecurity that will be noticed by the world as pathbreaking models”.

Sarvam AI has built best text-to-speech, speech-to text, and OCR models for Indic languages.

In December last year, Sarvam AI Co-Founder Pratyush Kumar showcased multilingual AI systems under the IndiaAI Mission, including India’s first sovereign foundational Large Language Model (LLM) for Indian languages.

In a significant step towards bolstering India’s AI ecosystem, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government in 2024 approved the India AI Mission with the allocation of Rs 10,300 crore. This funding, slated over the next five years, is poised to catalyse various components of the IndiaAI mission.

Last month, PM Modi urged startups to leverage AI for societal good. Chairing a roundtable with Indian AI startups at his residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, the Prime Minister urged making AI affordable, inclusive, and transparent.

He also suggested that Indian AI models should be distinct and should promote local and indigenous content and regional languages.

PM Modi noted that India will host the ‘India AI Impact Summit 2026’ from February 16-20, through which the country will play a major role in the technology sector.

—IANS

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