Technology giant IBM has entered into a strategic collaboration with BharatGen, a consortium backed by the Indian government, to accelerate the development of sovereign artificial intelligence models customised for India’s unique linguistic and cultural landscape.
The partnership, announced this week, marks a significant step towards building inclusive, multimodal large language models (LLMs) that prioritise India’s national interests while expanding the scope of AI in critical sectors.
The initiative combines IBM’s global expertise in AI, governance and model training with BharatGen’s mandate to design indigenous models. Together, the 2 organisations plan to develop solution templates for India-specific use cases by leveraging BharatGen’s data and models along with IBM’s Granite Models.
Demonstrations and prototypes will be built on IBM Watsonx and Red Hat OpenShift AI, ensuring scalability and enterprise readiness. A governance framework will also be introduced, rooted in IBM’s proven methodologies, to ensure that the models are developed responsibly and transparently.
The collaboration aims to bring transformative solutions to fields such as education, agriculture, healthcare, finance, citizen services and national security. Plans include creating scalable data pipelines using open-source tools enhanced with Indic capabilities, establishing new benchmarks suited for Indian languages, and exploring advanced architectures for next-generation generative AI.
BharatGen’s roadmap emphasises the inclusion of underserved languages and dialects beyond the most commonly used 12–22, thereby promoting digital equity and wider participation.
BharatGen operates under the Technology Innovation Hub at IIT Bombay with support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST). Its mission is to create sovereign AI models for India, develop a multilingual data repository, nurture AI talent and foster public-private partnerships. The consortium is building a family of LLMs and multimodal foundation models to serve both national and commercial needs.
IBM, meanwhile, is a global leader in hybrid cloud, AI, and consulting, operating across more than 175 countries. It is trusted by governments and corporates in sectors such as financial services, telecommunications, and healthcare. With innovations in AI, quantum computing, and cloud technologies, IBM remains committed to trust, transparency, inclusivity, and service.
Read More: AI Could Reshape India’s Growth Story with a $1.9 Trillion Boost to GDP by 2035, Says NITI Aayog!
The IBM-BharatGen partnership marks a new chapter in India’s AI journey, where global expertise meets local priorities. By focusing on inclusivity, governance, and linguistic diversity, the collaboration seeks to position India at the forefront of sovereign AI development while creating real-world impact across critical sectors.
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Published on: Sep 18, 2025, 11:56 AM IST
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