Bengaluru-based AI startup Sarvam AI has been chosen by the Centre under the IndiaAI Mission to build the country’s first sovereign large language model (LLM). This initiative will provide Sarvam with the compute resources needed to develop a foundational model entirely from scratch. The model will feature reasoning, voice capabilities and fluent in multiple Indian languages. It is also being designed for secure, large-scale deployment across a range of applications.
“We are humbled by the responsibility bestowed upon us to build India’s sovereign model, and we are ready to build AI that reaches every corner of the country. This is a crucial step toward building critical national AI infrastructure. Our goal is to build multi-modal, multi-scale foundation models from scratch. When we do, a universe of applications unfolds,” co-founder of Sarvam AI Dr Vivek Raghavan said. He added that for citizens, “interacting with AI would feel familiar, not foreign”, and for enterprises, it would enable them to “unlock intelligence without sending their data beyond borders”.
The sovereign model will be developed, deployed and optimised entirely within India using local infrastructure, with a strong emphasis on nurturing Indian talent. The broader IndiaAI Mission is aimed at achieving strategic autonomy and encouraging domestic innovation to enable India’s movement in the AI space in the coming years.
“Building an AI ecosystem for India has always been core to Sarvam’s mission, where our research, technology and models empower builders to create solutions for the country. As part of the Sovereign LLM proposal, we are developing three model variants: Sarvam-Large for advanced reasoning and generation, Sarvam-Small for real-time interactive applications, and Sarvam-Edge for compact on-device tasks,” said other co-founder Dr Pratyush Kumar. He also mentioned that Sarvam is collaborating with AI4Bharat at IIT Madras, a recognised leader in Indian language AI research, to bring these models to life. “Driving this effort is a best-in-class team at Sarvam that understands the depth and complexity of AI development like few others,” he added.
Sarvam AI has already proven its expertise in building foundational models tailored to Indian languages. What began as a research initiative has now evolved into a Sovereign AI platform supporting governments, nonprofits, and enterprises. The company’s models are designed to be cost-effective, scalable, and specifically optimized for Indian contexts.
“We are confident that Sarvam’s models will be competitive with global models,” said Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw.
