BharatGen: IIT Bombay's new firm to build India's sovereign AI.

• IIT Bombay established BharatGen Technology Foundation, an AI company, to build India's first national, sovereign AI system.
• BharatGen aims to create a Large Language Model (LLM) that understands over 22 Indian languages, accents, scripts, and cultural nuances across text, speech, and document understanding.
• The project secured significant funding, including Rs 235 crore from DST and Rs 1,058 crore from MeitY under the IndiaAI Mission.
• The company structure provides agility to transition massive AI models from research to real-world applications, collaborating with top institutions.
• BharatGen plans to offer "distilled versions" of its models, enabling startups and companies to integrate AI without needing extensive computing resources.

Why It Matters: India is building its own AI, BharatGen, to serve its diverse languages and culture.