New Delhi

The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD), under the Digital India Corporation (DIC), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and Government e Marketplace (GeM), the National Public Procurement Portal under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, have signed an MoU under "BHASHINI for Seva/Sanchalan - A BHASHINI Sahayogi Program" to strengthen multilingual digital capabilities across India's public procurement ecosystem through the BHASHINI Platform, India's National Language Digital Public Infrastructure.

According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Electronics & IT, the collaboration aims to promote multilingual access, multilingual governance, and multilingual service delivery across GeM's digital platforms, enabling stakeholders to access information and services in their preferred languages.

The initiative seeks to advance Voice First language technology infrastructure and Generative AI solutions while supporting seamless interaction across 22 officially recognised Indian languages and other Indian languages.

Under the collaboration, GeM and the BHASHINI team will work towards the co-creation, integration, and deployment of multilingual digital public resources through initiatives including BHASHINI Udyat, Mitra, Appmitra, Sahyogi, and Pravakta.

The collaboration will support translation API integration, domain-specific language model development, multilingual glossary creation, voice-enabled technologies, reference applications, voice bots, and linguistic dataset development to strengthen multilingual capabilities across the GeM ecosystem, the release said.

The initiative will support the development of a more inclusive public procurement ecosystem by reducing language barriers and enabling inclusive and equitable language accessibility across procurement services, seller onboarding, platform navigation, communication, and stakeholder engagement. The collaboration seeks to empower stakeholders of the GeM platform to operate, interact, and participate effectively in a multilingual digital ecosystem.

The collaboration will also focus on strengthening multilingual AI models and language technologies tailored to the needs of public procurement, government service delivery, commerce, and business participation, enabling seamless voice-first multilingual experiences across India's diverse linguistic landscape, the release noted.

The discussions highlighted the growing importance of multilingual technologies in expanding access to government procurement opportunities and supporting Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), particularly for MSMEs, startups, entrepreneurs, and businesses operating across different linguistic regions. The initiative seeks to ensure that language does not remain a barrier to participation in government procurement and economic opportunities.

The MoU will further encourage language data contributions through Bhashadaan, awareness initiatives, capacity-building efforts, and wider adoption of multilingual AI tools across institutions and stakeholders associated with the GeM ecosystem. The collaboration will also support the collection, curation, and dissemination of linguistic resources to enhance multilingual support across procurement services.

As part of the collaboration, GeM and DIBD may jointly explore and support specific initiatives aimed at strengthening multilingual digital infrastructure, expanding access to procurement services, promoting innovation, and enabling broader adoption of language technologies across the public procurement ecosystem, the release said.

The partnership further reinforces BHASHINI's role as India's population-scale language infrastructure for inclusive, accessible, and AI-driven digital governance while supporting GeM's vision of a transparent, efficient, and inclusive public procurement ecosystem that enables wider participation from buyers and sellers across the country.

"The collaboration aims to leverage BHASHINI's AI-powered language technologies to break linguistic barriers in public procurement and make GeM more accessible to buyers and sellers across the country", said ACEO and Chief Seller Officer Ajit B Chavan.

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"BHASHINI is committed to making digital public infrastructure truly inclusive by enabling citizens and enterprises to interact in their preferred Indian languages. Our collaboration with GeM will help democratize access to public procurement through multilingual and voice-enabled technologies, ensuring that language is no longer a barrier to participation. Together, we are empowering local businesses, MSMEs, startups, and Swadeshi enterprises to connect with national opportunities while strengthening India's vision of a digitally inclusive economy," said Amitabh Nag, CEO, Digital India BHASHINI Division.