State PCS - Maharashtra (MPSC)

• 04 Jun 2025

Bharat Gen: India’s First Indigenous AI Model

Why in News? 

Union Minister for Science & Technology launched ‘Bharat Gen’—India’s first indigenously developed, government-funded, AI-based Multimodal Large Language Model (LLM) for Indian languages, at the BharatGen Summit.  

• India has emerged as a global leader in AI, with platforms like the Centralised Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) serving as international benchmarks for citizen engagement and effective grievance redressal.

Note: 

• LLMs are large general-purpose language models capable of solving common language problems such as text classification, question answering, and text generation. 
• These models are trained on massive datasets to understand patterns, structures, and relationships within human language. 

Key Points

• About Bharat Gen: 
  • Bharat Gen is a part of the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) and aims to create AI that is ethical, inclusive, multilingual, and deeply embedded in Indian values and ethos. 
    • It is implemented through the Technology Innovation Hubs (TIH) Foundation for IoT (Internet of Things) and IoE (Internet of Everything) at IIT Bombay. 
  • The project integrates text, speech, and image modalities, offering seamless AI solutions in 22 Indian languages. 
  • It aims to transform sectors like healthcare, education, agriculture, and governance by delivering region-specific AI solutions. 
• AI and Education:  
  • BharatGen echoes the inclusive spirit of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which promotes interdisciplinary learning, helping students combine technical and social sciences for better innovation and employability. 
• Launch of Generative AI Hackathon 2025: 
  • The summit also marked the launch of the Generative AI Hackathon 2025, inviting students to tackle real-world challenges using AI. 
• MoUs at the Summit: 
  • The BharatGen Summit hosted major Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) exchanges to deepen collaboration across government agencies, academia, and research institutions. 

National Mission-Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems 

• About: 
  • It was launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Science and Technology with an outlay of Rs. 3,660.00 crore for a period of five years to encourage innovation in new age technologies. 
  • It covers the entire India which includes Central Ministries, State Governments, Industry and Academia. 
• Objectives: 
  • The NM-ICPS is a comprehensive Mission which would address technology development, application development, human resource development & skill enhancement, entrepreneurship and start-up development in Cyber Physical System (CPS) and associated technologies. 
  • The Mission aims at the establishment of 15 Technology Innovation Hubs (TIH), six Application Innovation Hubs (AIH) and four Technology Translation Research Parks (TTRP). 
  • These Hubs & TTRPs will connect to Academics, Industry, Central Ministries and State Government in developing solutions at reputed academic, R&D and other organizations across the country in a hub and spoke model. 
  • The Hubs & TTRPs have four focused areas along which the Mission implementation would proceed, namely: 
    • Technology Development, 
    • HRD & Skill Development, 
    • Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Start-ups Ecosystem Development, and 
    • International Collaborations.