BHASHINI and NITI Aayog Join Hands for Multilingual AI Governance

BHASHINI Pravakta will support wider awareness and adoption of these tools across districts through training, technical assistance and other resources.

The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) and NITI Aayog have entered into a partnership to expand the use of multilingual and voice-first artificial intelligence across government services, with a focus on helping citizens access digital information and public services in the Indian languages they are most comfortable using. The two organisations signed a Statement of Intent under the BHASHINI for Seva/Sanchalan initiative, bringing language technology into a wider set of governance platforms, communication systems and citizen-facing services.

The agreement was signed by Amitabh Nag, CEO of the Digital India BHASHINI Division, and Shoyabahmed Kalal, Director at NITI Aayog. DIBD operates under the Digital India Corporation of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, while the new collaboration will connect BHASHINI's language AI ecosystem with NITI Aayog's digital platforms and programmes.

AI Tools to Make Government Services Easier Across Languages

A central part of the partnership involves reducing the language barriers citizens can encounter while using government websites, digital platforms and information services. BHASHINI's translation APIs and reference applications will be integrated into relevant NITI Aayog services, creating opportunities for users to interact with government systems through their preferred Indian languages rather than depending primarily on English or a limited selection of languages.

The two organisations will work across BHASHINI Udyat, BHASHINI Mitra, BHASHINI AppMitra, BHASHINI Sahayogi and BHASHINI Pravakta. Their work will cover improvements to translation models, integration of language technologies into document management and communication workflows, and development of tools suited to specialised terminology used across different sectors.

Reference applications and voice bots are also planned for specific NITI Aayog sectors, allowing voice-based interaction to become part of digital public-service delivery where appropriate.

Citizens and Officials Can Contribute Language Data

The collaboration goes beyond translating existing digital content, with BHASHINI Sahayogi expected to use BhashaDaan to collect, curate and share linguistic data that can strengthen language technologies. Government officials and citizens will be encouraged to contribute text, audio and video samples, helping improve AI systems across languages, dialects and specialised areas where high-quality digital language data may be limited.

BHASHINI Pravakta will support wider awareness and adoption of these tools across districts through training, technical assistance and other resources. This part of the programme is particularly relevant for users with different levels of digital literacy, since multilingual technology becomes useful in public services only when people can comfortably understand and operate the systems built around it.

NITI TARA and SMRITI Bring AI Into Grassroots Administration

The partnership also connects with NITI TARA, or the Toolkit for Analysis, Review & Action, which is designed to help government officials turn data into practical decisions at the district and block levels. More than 200 capacity-building sessions have been conducted across India, reaching over 4,000 district and block officials who have been trained to use data-driven insights for evidence-based decision-making.

NITI TARA uses multi-sector dashboards, visualisations and collaborative planning tools to simplify reviews and improve coordination between departments. Its growing digital ecosystem includes SMRITI, the System for Meeting Recording, Information & Transcription Interface, developed in collaboration with BHASHINI.

SMRITI automates meeting minutes while supporting multilingual translation, reducing the manual work involved in documenting official discussions and making meeting information easier to use across languages. Combining such tools with voice bots, translation APIs and improved language models could make multilingual capabilities part of everyday administrative workflows rather than a separate layer added only to citizen-facing websites.

The BHASHINI-NITI Aayog partnership is expected to support two-way communication between citizens and government while widening access to public information across Indian languages, creating a digital governance environment where language becomes less of a barrier to participation and service delivery.