Imagine typing in Hindi to get answers in English, or speaking in Telugu to have it translated into Marathi. All with a simple tap. Bhashini, an AI-powered, multilingual platform, is breaking barriers of language, literacy, and digital access to ensure lakhs of people can access information when they need it, in the language they speak. Launched in July 2022 under the National Language Translation Mission (NLTM) and driven by the ministry of MeitY, it is making internet content and digital services accessible in 22+ Indian languages, enabling citizens to interact with technology in their own language. In other words, Bhashini is doing for language that UPI did for payments.
India has over 1,600 languages and dialects, but the internet is still dominated by English, especially on digital platforms for accessing government services. Bhashini changes this by translating websites, apps and documents into local languages. It does this by enabling speech-to-text, text-to-speech and real-time translation and allowing people to search, read and speak in their own language. It is also being integrated into DigiLocker, Umang, PM-Kisan, eCourts, GST portals etc.
Bridging India’s language divide
“Bhashini has evolved from a translation tool into a foundational layer for digital public infrastructure,” said Amitabh Nag, CEO, Digital India Bhashini Division. “It is transforming digital inclusion and has expanded initiatives to bridge digital and language divides across the country.”
Take for instance, its work with the ministry of panchayat. Herein, an AI-powered tool, called SabhaSaar, has been created to fast-track Gram Sabha meeting summaries. Integrated with Bhashini, it uses advanced AI and natural language processing (NLP) technologies to transcribe spoken discussions, identify key decisions and action points, and produce well-formatted meeting minutes. It currently supports 13 Indian languages and is helping 2.5 lakh panchayats.
Bhashini has partnered with the Gates Foundation (with implementation support from Civic Data Lab) to launch the Dataset Onboarding Supporting Team (DOST). In order to strengthen India’s AI language ecosystem, the purpose is to first identify high-value datasets relevant to local languages, and then prepare, clean and standardise them. By doing so, the partnership helps enhance AI tools for real-time human use cases – from health to education to government services – making technology accessible in languages people speak.
Maharashtra government’s farmer-centric MahaVISTAAR-AI app uses generative AI and Bhashini’s language tools to provide agricultural guidance in regional languages. Farmers can search for advisory content and recommendations in the language of their choice, making agri-advice more accessible. It integrates various agricultural services and advisory platforms into one AI-driven hub.
In healthcare, Bhashini will integrate its language technologies – including translation APIs, speech recognition, and text-to-speech tools – into National Health Authority platforms to support 22 scheduled Indian languages. The initiative focuses on voice-based AI solutions, allowing users to interact with health platforms using spoken queries in their native languages. It aims to bridge language barriers in healthcare access, particularly for the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).
AI to unlock manuscript heritage
Likewise, Bhashini is playing a key role in the ministry of culture’s “Gyan Bharatam” initiative to preserve, digitise, and disseminate India’s vast manuscript heritage – targeting over one crore manuscripts and creating a National Digital Repository. It provides multilingual AI capabilities – like speech-to-text, text translation, transcription and language processing – that can help interpret, tag and make sense of this digitised text. These language models can assist with tasks such as handwritten text recognition, script understanding and multilingual searchability across manuscripts. At the upcoming India AI Impact Summit, some strong use cases will be showcased.
Earlier this week, Bhashini announced it has completed its migration from a global hyperscaler (Microsoft Azure) to Yotta Data Services, a move that has enhanced its performance by nearly 40% and reduced operational costs by upto 30%. “This transition highlights that hyperscale, mission-critical AI platforms can be built and operated on sovereign infrastructure, without compromise,” said Sunil Gupta, co-founder, MD & CEO, Yotta Data Services.