IndiaAI Mission Grants ₹246.72 Crore to Sarvam AI for Sovereign Multilingual AI

New Delhi: The Government of India has highlighted Sarvam AI as a major milestone in the country’s push for technological self-reliance, positioning the homegrown startup at the center of India’s rapidly expanding artificial intelligence ecosystem. 

In an official release issued on February 21, 2026, the government said Sarvam AI represents a decisive step toward building sovereign, multilingual, and public-centric AI systems designed specifically for Indian needs.

Sarvam AI is among 12 selected organizations under the Innovation Centre pillar of the mission and is receiving financial and compute support of ₹246.72 crore to build foundational AI models tailored for Indian languages and governance use cases.

The announcement comes amid the broader implementation of the IndiaAI Mission, which aims to strengthen domestic AI capabilities across research, infrastructure, innovation, and public service delivery. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, speaking at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, described the initiative as a reflection of India’s growing technological confidence and its commitment to building systems that align with the vision of Viksit Bharat. He emphasised that indigenous AI platforms are essential for ensuring that innovation benefits citizens across regions and languages rather than remaining limited to English-speaking or urban populations.

Sarvam AI has developed a suite of foundational models addressing speech, text, and document intelligence in Indian languages. Its text-to-speech system, “Bulbul,” supports multiple Indian languages with dozens of speaker voices, while “Saaras,” its speech-to-text engine, is designed to handle all 22 scheduled Indian languages, including code-mixed inputs that are common in everyday Indian communication. The company’s document understanding model processes printed and handwritten text across diverse scripts, enabling digitisation and analysis of official and archival records.

Beyond individual models, Sarvam AI is building a full-stack ecosystem that includes compute infrastructure, developer tools, and enterprise-ready applications. Its platforms are designed for conversational AI, workplace productivity tools, multilingual content creation, and edge intelligence systems capable of operating with low latency. 

The government said such integrated capabilities are crucial for reducing dependence on foreign AI technologies and ensuring data sovereignty.

The company has also entered into strategic collaborations with public institutions. It is working with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to enhance multilingual voice interactions and strengthen fraud detection mechanisms within Aadhaar-related services. 

In partnership with the Government of Odisha, Sarvam AI is helping establish a 50 MW AI-optimized sovereign compute capacity hub intended to serve as national digital infrastructure. 

Separately, it is collaborating with the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras to develop Digital Sangam, described as India’s first sovereign AI research park with a 20 MW data center to promote research, innovation, and startup incubation.

The government said these efforts demonstrate how domestic AI development can directly support governance, public services, and economic growth.