India launches three Sovereign AI Models; Sundar Pichai lauds local innovation

India has launched three homegrown sovereign AI models by Sarvam AI, Gnani.ai and BharatGen marking a major step in building India-first alternatives to global Big Tech platforms.

India on February 18 rolled out three sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) models at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, underscoring the government’s push to build India-first AI systems that are trained, deployed, and governed domestically.

The models were unveiled by Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI, conversational AI firm Gnani.ai, and BharatGen, an IIT-Bombay-led consortium focused on multilingual and generative AI. Together, they represent the first major phase of India’s effort to develop sovereign AI alternatives to global systems dominated by Big Tech.

Sarvam AI announced the launch of two large language models (LLMs) trained entirely in India, while Gnani.ai and BharatGen introduced voice and multilingual AI models aimed at serving India’s diverse linguistic landscape. The models are designed to support public-sector use cases, enterprises, and developers, while keeping data and governance within national boundaries.

These launches come under the umbrella of the IndiaAI Mission, which was approved by the Union Cabinet in March 2024 with an initial outlay of ₹10,000 crore. The mission aims to build India’s sovereign AI capabilities through domestic foundational models, large-scale compute infrastructure, and AI applications for public use.

Momentum for the mission picked up in late 2024 and early 2025, as the government operationalised GPU subsidies and opened applications for startups seeking compute support. More than ₹100 crore has since been disbursed toward high-performance GPU subsidies, with over a dozen companies selected to participate in the programme.

Speaking at the summit, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, highlighted India’s growing AI ecosystem. He noted that developer innovation in India is “second to none” and said the progress made by companies like Sarvam AI shows that local, impactful AI development is already underway.

With sovereign models now entering deployment, policymakers and industry leaders see this phase as critical to ensuring that India’s AI future is shaped by domestic innovation, local languages, and public-interest use cases rather than reliance on overseas platforms.