New Delhi: The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) and the Government e Marketplace (GeM) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to expand multilingual access across India’s public procurement ecosystem, enabling businesses, entrepreneurs and government stakeholders to engage with procurement services in their preferred languages.
The collaboration, signed under the “BHASHINI for Seva/Sanchalan, A BHASHINI Sahayogi Program”, will integrate AI-powered language technologies into the GeM platform to support multilingual governance, service delivery and digital access. The initiative aims to facilitate seamless interactions across 22 officially recognised Indian languages, along with several other Indian languages.
As part of the partnership, the two organisations will jointly develop and deploy multilingual digital resources and tools through initiatives such as BHASHINI Udyat, Mitra, Appmitra, Sahyogi and Pravakta. The effort will include translation API integration, voice-enabled technologies, multilingual glossaries, domain-specific language models, linguistic datasets, reference applications and voice bots designed for the public procurement ecosystem.
The initiative is expected to make government procurement services more accessible by reducing language barriers faced by sellers and buyers. It will support platform navigation, seller onboarding, communication and stakeholder engagement, particularly benefiting MSMEs, startups and businesses operating in different linguistic regions of the country.
The collaboration will also focus on strengthening multilingual AI models for public procurement, commerce and government service delivery, while promoting voice-first digital experiences. In addition, the partnership will encourage language data contributions through Bhashadaan, capacity-building programmes and wider adoption of multilingual AI tools among institutions associated with the GeM ecosystem.
Ajit B Chavan, ACEO and Chief Seller Officer, GeM, said, “The collaboration aims to leverage BHASHINI’s AI-powered language technologies to break linguistic barriers in public procurement and make GeM more accessible to buyers and sellers across the country”.
Amitabh Nag, CEO, Digital India BHASHINI Division, said, “BHASHINI is committed to making digital public infrastructure truly inclusive by enabling citizens and enterprises to interact in their preferred Indian languages. Our collaboration with GeM will help democratize access to public procurement through multilingual and voice-enabled technologies, ensuring that language is no longer a barrier to participation. Together, we are empowering local businesses, MSMEs, startups, and Swadeshi enterprises to connect with national opportunities while strengthening India’s vision of a digitally inclusive economy.”
According to DIBD, BHASHINI currently powers more than 800 government websites, processes over 15 million inferences daily and supports 36 Indian text languages, 23 Indian voice languages and 35 international languages. Through its National Hub for Language Technology (NHLT), the platform provides speech and text-based AI services for governance, public platforms and institutions across the country.
BI Bureau
