Indian Economy News

Digital India BHASHINI Division and Government of Manipur Sign MoU to Advance Multilingual AI and Language Technology at BHASHINI Rajyam Workshop

The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD), under Digital India Corporation and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Manipur to advance multilingual artificial intelligence (AI) and strengthen language technology for citizen-centric digital services. The agreement was signed during the BHASHINI Rajyam Workshop, Manipur Chapter, held in Imphal on October 14, 2026, in collaboration with the Department of Information Technology, Government of Manipur. The workshop was attended by Chief Minister of Manipur Mr. Yumnam Khemchand Singh and brought together government representatives and other stakeholders to explore the integration of Indian language technologies into public services. The partnership aims to strengthen language resources, develop practical multilingual solutions and improve the accessibility of digital services across the state. A live demonstration of real-time English-to-Manipuri translation highlighted the potential of language technology to overcome communication barriers and support inclusive digital participation.

The workshop showcased BHASHINI’s Language-First Digital Public Infrastructure, which combines language datasets, AI models, application programming interfaces and applications to enable multilingual digital services. Discussions covered potential applications in education, healthcare, legal services and grievance redressal, alongside the importance of validating language models using relevant data and inputs from local communities. Chief Minister of Manipur Mr. Yumnam Khemchand Singh highlighted the role of AI in bringing the state’s linguistic diversity into the digital ecosystem. The collaboration will explore language resources for Manipuri, Tangkhul, Thadou, Paite, Hmar, Liangmai and other languages spoken in Manipur. The BHASHINI Shilpi platform also provided developers, students and innovators with opportunities to experiment with language AI, while the BHASHINI Mitra initiative encouraged contributions from state institutions and language communities. As a next step, the Digital India BHASHINI Division and the Government of Manipur will identify priority applications, assess language-data requirements and explore integration with government platforms. BHASHINI currently supports text services in 36 Indian languages, voice services in 23 Indian languages and 35 international languages, and powers more than 800 government websites.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.