The Digital India BHASHINI Division of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology announced on 24 October 2026 its participation in the ETD-2026 symposium at IIT Delhi. The division demonstrated AI capabilities, including speech-to-text and document translation, to help higher education institutions and research repositories overcome language barriers in academic content. These tools support 36 Indian languages for text and 23 for voice, with a specific focus on translating lengthy academic documents like theses and dissertations. The release does not say when these collaborations take effect, but invites academic organisations to explore partnerships.
Key points
- Supports 36 Indian languages for text and 23 Indian languages for voice
- AI translation plugin currently enables multilingual access for over 800 government websites
- BHASHINI Pragati can process large documents spanning 100 to 500 pages
- Over 10 billion cumulative AI inferences have been recorded
- Invites universities and libraries to collaborate on domain-specific language resources
When it applies
- 29th International Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD-2026)
Who it affects
- higher education institutions, research repositories, libraries and academic organisations