TLDR: IBM and BharatGen have announced a strategic collaboration to accelerate the adoption of Artificial Intelligence in India. This partnership will leverage BharatGen’s sovereign multimodal and Large Language Models, specifically designed for India’s diverse linguistic and cultural landscape, combined with IBM’s AI expertise in data, governance, and model training technology. The initiative aims to develop and scale AI solutions across critical sectors such as education, agriculture, banking, healthcare, and citizen services.
Mumbai, India – September 17, 2025 – IBM (NYSE: IBM) and BharatGen today unveiled a significant strategic collaboration aimed at propelling the adoption of Artificial Intelligence across India. This partnership is set to harness BharatGen’s indigenously developed sovereign multimodal and Large Language Models (LLMs), which are meticulously crafted to resonate with India’s rich linguistic and cultural diversity. The collaboration will integrate IBM’s profound expertise in AI data, governance, and model training technologies with BharatGen’s national mandate to foster inclusive, India-centric AI solutions rooted in local contexts and values.
The core objective of this initiative is to develop and scale multimodal and language-specific AI models, expanding their applications across a multitude of vital sectors. These include education, agriculture, banking, healthcare, and citizen services, among others.
Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India and South Asia, emphasized IBM’s commitment to fostering open and trusted AI solutions. “At IBM, we are committed to support the creation of open, trusted AI that solves real-world problems,” said Patel. “Through our collaboration with BharatGen, we aim to advance sovereign AI capabilities that reflect India’s diversity and deliver meaningful impact across sectors.”
Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan of BharatGen highlighted the organization’s dedication to building AI models that reflect India’s unique heritage. “At BharatGen, we have been building sovereign AI models and the ecosystem that reflects the linguistic richness, cultural nuances, and diverse needs of our people. This collaboration with IBM allows us to bring cutting-edge global research, scalable architectures and inclusive systems for India,” stated Prof. Ramakrishnan. He further added, “With IBM’s strength in enterprise-grade platforms and our commitment to public-good AI, we are on a path to drive transformative solutions for empowering India’s digital journey across domains such as agriculture, finance, education, and governance.”
As part of this comprehensive collaboration, several key initiatives will be undertaken:
Solution Template Development: Creating solution templates for Indic use cases by leveraging BharatGen’s models and data with IBM’s AI technologies, including IBM Granite Models.
Demonstration and Use Case Creation: Developing demonstrations and use case templates, such as Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and targeted domain applications, on IBM Watsonx and Red Hat OpenShift AI.
Scalable Data Pipeline: Building a robust and scalable data pipeline using IBM’s selected open-source tools, enhanced with Indic-specific capabilities to streamline data preparation workflows.
Governance Framework Implementation: Establishing a strong governance framework based on IBM’s enterprise-scale model development methodology to ensure responsible AI model development.
New Benchmarks: Creating new benchmarks specifically tailored for Indic domains and languages.
Research and Development: Conducting research into new and emerging model architectures and technologies, drawing upon the combined experience and expertise of IBM and BharatGen in high-performance and purpose-built generative AI models.
BharatGen, a landmark AI project funded by the Indian government, was launched under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems by IIT Bombay. Its mandate is to build AI for the nation by developing efficient AI models for Indian languages, creating a multilingual data repository, fostering public-private partnerships, and strengthening India’s AI talent pool. The platform integrates text, speech, and image modalities, offering seamless AI solutions in 22 Indian languages. This focus on data sovereignty ensures that Indian languages, dialects, and cultural contexts are accurately represented in AI technologies, reducing reliance on foreign data sources.
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This partnership underscores a shared vision to accelerate India’s digital transformation by making AI more accessible, inclusive, and relevant to the country’s diverse population.
