New Delhi, August 13: The central government is developing multilingual and voice-first AI technology to make governance and public services more inclusive and accessible.
According to the Ministry of Information Technology, the Digital India ‘Bhashini’ division (DIBD) and NITI Aayog have signed a memorandum under the Bhashini for Service/Operations initiative.
The aim of this partnership is to utilize the multilingual AI ecosystem of Bhashini to enhance the inclusivity and accessibility of governance. AI-based language technologies will be integrated into NITI Aayog’s digital platforms and services.
A government statement noted, “This partnership will enable citizens to access government information and services in their preferred Indian languages. It will strengthen communication between the government and citizens and promote multilingual operations in public service delivery.”
Under this collaboration, multilingual access to NITI Aayog’s services will be facilitated through Bhashini’s language translation API and reference applications. Additionally, it will assist in the development and continuous improvement of translation models. Language technologies will also be integrated into digital platforms, document management systems, and communication workflows.
A key component of this ecosystem is ‘Smriti,’ which stands for System for Meeting Recording, Information, and Transcription Interface. Developed in conjunction with Bhashini, ‘Smriti’ will automatically prepare meeting minutes and provide multilingual translations. This will enhance the efficiency of government operations and make governance more inclusive for the last person in the line.
This collaboration is also based on NITI Aayog’s ‘NITI Tara,’ a toolkit for analysis, review, and action. ‘NITI Tara’ is transforming data into actionable insights at the grassroots level.
So far, over 200 capacity-building sessions have been conducted nationwide, training more than 4,000 officials from districts and blocks in data-driven insights to facilitate evidence-based decision-making.
Under this partnership, reference applications and voice bots for various sectors will also be developed by NITI Aayog. Moreover, language technology will be strengthened to cater to specific terminologies and sectoral needs.
Through the ‘Bhashini Sahyogi’ initiative, linguistic data will be collected, curated, and disseminated using ‘Bhashadaan.’ NITI Aayog officials and citizens will be encouraged to provide text, audio, and video samples for this purpose.
Leave a Comment