BharatGen hailed as India's first sovereign multilingual, multimodal AI LLM
During a visit to IIT Bombay on 25 November 2025, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh hailed BharatGen as India's first sovereign multilingual and multimodal AI-driven Large Language Model initiative, backed by ₹1,293 crore of government support.
Summary
BharatGen aims to support 22+ Indian languages across text, speech and document-vision. It is supported under DST's National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (₹235 crore) and recently received ₹1,058 crore from MeitY under the IndiaAI Mission. Models released include Param-1, a 2.9-billion-parameter text model trained on 7.5 trillion tokens; Shrutam (speech recognition) and Sooktam (text-to-speech in nine Indic languages); and Patram, described as India's first document-vision model with seven billion parameters. Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan is Professor-in-Charge.
Key facts
- Initiative
- BharatGen (led from IIT Bombay)
- Govt support
- ₹1,293 crore (₹235 cr DST NM-ICPS + ₹1,058 cr MeitY IndiaAI)
- Languages
- 22+ Indian languages
- Param-1
- 2.9 bn parameters, 7.5 trillion tokens
- Patram
- Document-vision model, 7 bn parameters
- Speech
- Shrutam (ASR), Sooktam (TTS)
Practice MCQs 3 questions
At which institute did Dr Jitendra Singh review the BharatGen AI initiative on 25 November 2025?
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Correct answer: D — IIT Bombay
The Minister reviewed BharatGen and interacted with its core team during his visit to IIT Bombay.
BharatGen's foundational text model 'Param-1' has how many parameters?
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Correct answer: B — 2.9 billion
Param-1 is a 2.9-billion-parameter text model trained on 7.5 trillion tokens. Patram, the document-vision model, has seven billion.
Consider the following statements about BharatGen: 1. It has received ₹1,058 crore from MeitY under the IndiaAI Mission. 2. It is supported under DST's National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
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Correct answer: C — Both 1 and 2
Both are correct: BharatGen is supported under DST's NM-ICPS (₹235 crore) and recently got ₹1,058 crore from MeitY under the IndiaAI Mission.