Sarvam AI selected to build India’s 1st artificial intelligence foundational model

The government on Saturday announced it has selected homegrown startup Sarvam AI to build the country’s first artificial intelligence (AI) foundational model.

Out of the 67 proposals, Sarvam AI has been shortlisted to build India’s first indigenous foundational model, said Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at an event to release the guidelines for the Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) scheme here, adding that there will soon be 2-3 more startups that will join the programme.

“The ECMS is a horizontal scheme. It will feed into various sectors, electronic, automotive and so on,” the minister said.

In December 2023, Sarvam AI, founded by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, raised $41 million in its Series A round led by Lightspeed and supported by Peak XV Partners and Vinod Khosla-run Khosla Ventures.

Marking a significant step towards bolstering India’s AI ecosystem, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government in 2024 approved the India AI Mission with the allocation of Rs 10,300 crore. This funding, slated over the next five years, is poised to catalyse various components of the IndiaAI mission.

In a bid to make access to quality datasets easier for developing AI technologies, the government recently took a big step in its India AI Mission by launching AIKosha, the country’s sovereign datasets platform, and an AI Compute Portal.

The government has also set a target of developing GPUs domestically within the next three to five years. This is part of the larger Rs 10,000-crore IndiaAI Mission. The AI Compute Portal will allow companies to access subsidised GPUs for research and development. As of now, about 14,000 GPUs have gone live, with another 4,000 in the pipeline.

Earlier, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had announced the procurement of 18,693 GPUs from selected vendors.