BHASHINI's open DPI can transform digital access for millions across South Asia

New Delhi, June 7 (IANS) BHASHINI’s open Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) model has the potential to transform digital access for millions of citizens across South Asia, Amitabh Nag, CEO, Digital India BHASHINI Division, has said. The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) under IT Ministry, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kathmandu University's Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure & Artificial Intelligence (DPI-AI), Nepal, to establish a collaborative framework for advancing Language AI, multilingual digital public infrastructure, and inclusive digital ecosystems across India and Nepal. According to Nag, this collaboration will help us extend that vision beyond India's borders, strengthening our shared linguistic and cultural heritage while building the next generation of multilingual AI for the Global South. The exchange of the MoU took place in the presence of External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S. Jaishankar, and Shishir Khanal, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nepal. The occasion underscored the shared commitment of India and Nepal towards strengthening cooperation in emerging technologies, Digital Public Infrastructure, and inclusive digital transformation. Under the MoU, the two institutions will collaborate on the development of high-quality Nepali language datasets, speech corpora, and multilingual AI resources including speech-to-text, text-to-speech, machine translation, and multilingual conversational AI capabilities. The partnership will also support the preservation and digitisation of linguistic and literary heritage of low-resource and underrepresented languages across the India-Nepal region, ensuring that communities whose languages risk digital extinction have access to AI-enabled tools and services in their mother tongue, according to an official statement. Professor Bal Krishna Bal, Associate Dean, Kathmandu University said this MoU reflects a shared commitment between Nepal and India to harness the power of artificial intelligence for linguistic inclusion and social impact. Going beyond a technology collaboration, the MoU is envisioned as an initiative to strengthen people-to-people connections, preserve linguistic heritage, and enable equitable access to opportunities by overcoming language, literacy, and digital barriers across the region. —IANS na/