The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in collaboration with the Information Technology Department, Government of Uttarakhand, successfully organized the BHASHINI Rajyam Workshop: Uttarakhand Chapter at Hotel Ramada, Dehradun. The workshop marked a significant milestone in Uttarakhand’s journey toward inclusive, voice-first digital governance and the linguistic empowerment of regional languages, particularly Garhwali and Kumaoni.

The workshop commenced with an overview of BHASHINI tools by Shri Amitabh Nag, CEO, Digital India BHASHINI Division, who emphasized the importance of building high-quality language datasets through community participation. He highlighted that collaborative data collection and model development, in partnership with the Government of Uttarakhand, would enable robust speech recognition systems, multilingual applications, and citizen-centric digital services in the state’s official and regional languages.

The event brought together senior officers from key Government of Uttarakhand departments, representatives from leading academic and research institutions in Dehradun, language bodies, and technical experts. The participants explored practical use cases and developed a roadmap for integrating BHASHINI’s language platforms into governance and public service delivery.

Key sessions during the workshop included demonstrations of BHASHINI’s multilingual, voice-first governance tools; introduction of the Mitra Program (MITRA) as a collaborative framework for state-led AI development and data sharing; launch of Bhashini Samudaye, envisaging State Language Missions to drive localized digital language adoption; and a live demonstration of Bhashadaan, encouraging citizens to contribute voice and text data to strengthen AI models for Garhwali, Kumaoni, and other regional languages.

Participants engaged in department-specific discussions on integrating BHASHINI tools across sectors such as education, healthcare, agriculture, and citizen services. Dedicated capacity-building sessions equipped government officials and technical teams with practical knowledge to deploy voice-first solutions effectively.

Highlighting the cultural context, Shri Nitesh Kumar Jha, Secretary (IT), Government of Uttarakhand, noted that Garhwali and Kumaoni form the core of Uttarakhand’s linguistic identity, and initiatives such as VANI SANGAM and associated hackathons provide an important platform for youth and innovators to contribute to language-led innovation.

Shri Alok Kumar Pandey, Additional Secretary (IT) and Director, ITDA, underlined that language inclusion is fundamental to digital inclusion and stressed BHASHINI’s strength in ensuring data sovereignty, with all language data remaining within Indian territory under government oversight.

Addressing the digital divide, Shri Amitabh Nag stated that BHASHINI aims to make technology understand and respond in Indian languages, thereby making digital systems more inclusive and citizen-centric. He sought the continued support of the Government of Uttarakhand in collecting Garhwali and Kumaoni datasets critical for building accurate AI language models.

Shri Sanjay Gupta, Deputy Director General, NIC Uttarakhand, shared that NIC Uttarakhand has been working closely with the BHASHINI team and plans to integrate the BHASHINI AI translation plugin across all Government of Uttarakhand websites based on the S3WaaS framework, enhancing usability and productivity of digital governance platforms.

The presence of senior officials from the Government of Uttarakhand and MeitY reaffirmed the shared vision of building a multilingual, inclusive, and citizen-centric Digital India. The BHASHINI Rajyam Workshop: Uttarakhand Chapter concluded with a strong commitment to ensuring that language is no longer a barrier to accessing digital governance, empowering citizens to engage with government services in their own languages.
 

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