What happened: AI-based language learning and translation initiatives expanded for tribal and multilingual areas
The Ministry of Education described Government initiatives that support mother-tongue based education in tribal and multilingual regions using AI/ML tools and language datasets. The Government tied these initiatives to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which emphasises multilingualism and promotion of all Indian languages.
Key Government platforms and programmes highlighted in the Rajya Sabha written reply include BharatGen, BHASHINI, National Language Translation Mission work through BHASHINI, and Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) efforts for tribal languages such as Santhali, Mundari, Bhili, and others.
What existed earlier: multilingual education policy and language resource building
NEP 2020 provided the policy direction for multilingualism and language promotion. Separately, CIIL has built linguistic primers and resources for Indian languages, including tribal languages, and has run digitisation and language-learning initiatives through its portals and projects.
In the AI context, the Government’s approach—described in the reply—uses AI/ML tools for translation and language services, along with curated language datasets that help train and improve models for Indian languages.
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