Government Backs 20 Indigenous AI Models Under IndiaAI Mission

The central government has identified 20 indigenous sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) model proposals for support under the IndiaAI Mission, Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told Parliament on Wednesday in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

The 20 proposals comprise 12 Large Language Models and 8 Small Language Models, with five already released publicly. The initiative is part of a broader push to build domestic AI capability rather than relying entirely on models developed abroad.

What Is Being Built

The supported models span a range of architectures and use cases:

• Sarvam AI: 30 billion and 105 billion parameter large language models.

• Gnani.AI: Speech-to-speech model.

• BharatGen: Multilingual foundation models.

• Avataar AI: Video generation model.

• Domain-specific small language models for healthcare, language technologies and agentic AI systems.

All the startups involved have received government funding as part of the mission.

The Infrastructure Behind It

The IndiaAI Mission has moved beyond just model development to build the compute and institutional stack needed to sustain a domestic AI ecosystem:

• 15 compute service providers empanelled.

• 237 projects supported.

• 93.18 lakh graphics processing unit (GPU) hours sanctioned for research and development.

• 27 India Data and AI Labs set up, with 188 more in the pipeline.

• 58 AI Centres of Excellence approved across states and Union Territories.

Under the mission, the government has brought down compute rental rates to around ₹65–67 per hour through heavy subsidies.

Talent And Application Development

• 686 fellowships awarded across 178 institutions.

• Over 26.5 lakh individuals completed the YUVA AI for All programme.

• 12 national-level hackathons conducted, producing 62 AI prototypes.

• 20 AI-based solutions deployed.

The IndiaAI Mission is built around seven pillars covering models, applications, datasets, talent development and affordable compute infrastructure, anchored in India's $300 billion IT sector that employs approximately 60 lakh people.

The India AI Governance Guidelines, released on 05 November 2025, provide the framework for safe and responsible AI development in the country.

Also Read - DRDO And Adani Sign Deal For Six Surveillance Aircraft Targeting 2032 Induction