Centre revamps websites, creates multilingual AI hub for better scheme outreach

The Union government has begun revamping its official websites and is working on an artificial intelligence hub to distribute information on government initiatives. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) released a Digital Brand Identity Manual on Tuesday (February 18, 2025), seeking to create a standard design language for government websites.

The initiative, to “harmonise the government’s digital footprint,” was encouraged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who asked Ministry Secretaries to improve their websites at a recent meeting, according to MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan. As digital platforms emerge as a “first point of contact”, the new manual says that “a cohesive and compelling brand presence is essential to engage with the national and global audiences effectively.”

Multilingual AI hub

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry, meanwhile, is developing an AI hub to enable effective and efficient dissemination of information on various government initiatives and projects. “The platform will also have the facility for multilingual translation of contents for an effective outreach to the masses across the country,” said a senior government official. The hub has not yet been formally inaugurated.

Other initiatives include: Digital India Bhashini, a language translation platform; BharatGen, the world’s first government-funded multimodal large language model (LLM) initiative launched in 2024; the Sarvam-1 AI LLM; Chitralekha, an open-source video transcreation platform; and the multilingual AI system Everest 1.0, which caters to various Indian languages.

India’s AI boom

For skilling purposes, AI courses will be expanded across undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD programmes, the official said. Fellowships are already being provided to full-time Ph.D. scholars researching AI at the top 50 institutes in the National Institutional Ranking Framework. Data and AI labs are also being set up in tier-2 and tier-3 cities to offer foundational AI courses.

The official cited the Stanford AI Index 2024 report, which says that India ranks first globally in AI skill penetration (2.8), surpassing the United States (2.2), and Germany (1.9). It has witnessed a 263% growth in AI talent concentration since 2016, and its AI skill penetration rate for women is 1.7, followed by the U.S. (1.2), and Israel (0.9). India, which has 16% of the world’s AI talent, ranks second in public generative AI projects on GitHub.

The ‘India Skills Report 2024’, published by Wheebox, predicts that India’s AI industry will reach a valuation of $28.8 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of 45%. The AI-skilled workforce in the country has seen a 14-fold increase between 2016 and 2023. A recent report compiled by BCG says that India is leading the world in AI adoption, with 80% of companies identifying it as a core strategic priority, above the 75% global average; and 69% of Indian companies plan to increase tech investments this year. India is home to more than 520 tech incubators and accelerators.