BHASHINI, GeM Collaborate For AI-powered Language Technologies

New Delhi, Jun 16 (KNN) The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) and the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen multilingual access across India's public procurement ecosystem through AI-powered language technologies.

The collaboration, signed under the "BHASHINI for Seva/Sanchalan – A BHASHINI Sahayogi Program", aims to enable buyers, sellers, MSMEs, startups and businesses to access GeM services in their preferred languages, supporting seamless interaction across 22 officially recognised Indian languages and several other Indian languages.

Under the partnership, GeM and BHASHINI will jointly develop and deploy multilingual digital tools, including translation APIs, voice-enabled technologies, domain-specific language models, multilingual glossaries, voice bots and linguistic datasets to improve accessibility across the procurement platform.

The initiative seeks to reduce language barriers in seller onboarding, platform navigation, communication and stakeholder engagement, making government procurement more accessible and inclusive for businesses operating in different linguistic regions.

The collaboration will also support the development of multilingual AI solutions for public procurement, commerce and government service delivery, while promoting voice-first digital experiences across the GeM ecosystem.

As part of the initiative, both organisations will work on language data contributions, capacity-building programmes, awareness campaigns and wider adoption of multilingual AI tools. 

They will also explore additional projects aimed at strengthening digital language infrastructure and expanding access to procurement opportunities.

According to GeM, the partnership is expected to improve ease of doing business by enabling greater participation of MSMEs, startups and entrepreneurs in government procurement, irrespective of language barriers.

The agreement further supports BHASHINI's objective of building inclusive, AI-driven digital public infrastructure and GeM's goal of creating a transparent and accessible public procurement ecosystem for buyers and sellers across the country.

According to BHASHINI, its language technology platform currently supports over 800 government websites, processes more than 15 million inferences daily, and provides services across 36 Indian text languages, 23 Indian voice languages and 35 international languages.

(KNN Bureau)