The Indian government has selected Bengaluru-based AI startup Sarvam AI to spearhead the development of an indigenous foundational AI model under the IndiaAI Mission. Sarvam AI will receive access to graphics processing units (GPUs) from the IndiaAI Mission’s common compute cluster to train the model. This initiative aims to foster strategic autonomy, boost domestic innovation, and secure India’s leadership in the global AI landscape. The model is expected to be completed in six months.

Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw highlighted that Sarvam's model will have 70 billion parameters and many innovations in programming and engineering, enabling it to compete with the best in the world. The government received over 400 applications for building Indian models, ultimately selecting Sarvam AI for its capabilities.

Sarvam’s model will be capable of reasoning, designed for voice interaction, and fluent in Indian languages, making it suitable for secure, population-scale deployment. The startup is developing three model variants: Sarvam-Large for advanced reasoning and generation, Sarvam-Small for real-time interactive applications, and Sarvam-Edge for compact on-device tasks. They are collaborating with AI4Bharat at IIT Madras to build these models. Sarvam AI was founded by Dr. Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, who were previously part of AI4Bharat.

The IndiaAI Mission, with an allocation of Rs 10,300 crore over the next five years, aims to catalyze various components of the AI ecosystem in India. The government has launched AIKosha, a sovereign datasets platform, and an AI Compute Portal to facilitate access to quality datasets and subsidized GPUs for AI research and development. There are currently 14,000 GPUs live, with another 4,000 in the pipeline. The government is also targeting the domestic development of GPUs within the next three to five years.

Dr. Raghavan emphasized the importance of building critical national AI infrastructure, aiming to create multi-modal, scalable models that serve both citizens and enterprises while keeping data within Indian borders. The selection of Sarvam AI marks a crucial step towards realizing this vision and promoting AI applications that feel familiar and are tailored to the needs of the Indian populace.