The Digital India BHASHINI Division under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Manipur to expand multilingual artificial intelligence and language technology across the state’s digital services. The agreement was formalised at the BHASHINI Rajyam Workshop held in Imphal on 14 October 2026, bringing together government officials and technology stakeholders to explore how local languages can be better integrated into government platforms and citizen-facing applications.
Under the MoU, both parties will work to identify priority government services that need language technology support, assess data requirements for local languages, and integrate BHASHINI’s AI capabilities into relevant state platforms. The collaboration will involve strengthening language resources and working with language experts and community members to develop and validate solutions that reflect Manipur’s linguistic diversity.
Key facts
- MoU signed between Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) and Government of Manipur on 14 October 2026
- Represented by Amitabh Nag, CEO DIBD, and Somorjit Salam, IAS, Secretary, Information Technology, Government of Manipur
- Workshop held in Imphal and attended by Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh
- BHASHINI currently supports 36 Indian languages for text, 23 for voice and 35 international languages
- The platform powers over 800 government websites and processes more than 24 million AI inferences daily
- Live demonstration of English-to-Manipuri real-time translation showcased at the workshop
- Manipur’s linguistic diversity includes Manipuri, Tangkhul, Thadou, Paite, Hmar and Liangmai languages
What is BHASHINI and why it matters
BHASHINI is India’s Language-First Digital Public Infrastructure designed to make government digital services accessible in Indian languages. It combines language datasets, artificial intelligence models, application programming interfaces (APIs) and ready-to-use applications to help government departments and developers build multilingual solutions. Since its launch, BHASHINI has enabled over 9 billion cumulative AI inferences across government websites and citizen-facing services.
The core challenge BHASHINI addresses is the digital divide created by language. While many citizens prefer to access government services, information and applications in their native languages, most government platforms remain available only in English or Hindi. This language barrier prevents people from effectively using digital services for education, healthcare, legal matters and grievance redressal.
What the MoU will deliver
The partnership between DIBD and Manipur will focus on three main areas. First, both organisations will identify which government services most urgently need multilingual support and are likely to benefit from language technology. Second, they will assess what language data is needed to develop and improve AI models for Manipuri and other local languages spoken in the state. Third, they will integrate BHASHINI’s existing language tools and APIs into government platforms so that citizens can interact with services in their native languages.
The collaboration will also strengthen language resources by engaging local language experts and communities. This ensures that AI models are trained on data that reflects how people in Manipur actually speak and communicate, making the technology more useful and accurate in real-world government interactions.
Planned applications in government services
Sessions at the workshop discussed how multilingual AI could improve several key areas of government service delivery. These include education platforms where learning materials could be made available in local languages, healthcare services where patients can communicate symptoms and receive guidance in their native language, legal services that become more accessible to citizens unfamiliar with formal English or Hindi, and grievance redressal systems where complaints and concerns can be filed and tracked in local languages.
The workshop also introduced BHASHINI शिल्पी, an interactive platform where developers, students and innovators can learn to build applications using BHASHINI’s language AI tools. This is intended to create a local ecosystem of technologists in Manipur who can design solutions tailored to the state’s specific needs.
What this means for you
If you are a Manipur citizen accessing government services, this partnership should eventually make it easier to interact with government websites and digital platforms in Manipuri or your local language, rather than struggling with English or Hindi. Students and developers in Manipur will have opportunities to learn and build with language AI technology through BHASHINI’s platform. Government employees will gain access to translation and language tools that can help them serve citizens more effectively across language groups.
What happens next
Both organisations will now identify specific government use cases and priority services for language technology integration. They will assess the language data available and needed for each service, and begin working with language experts and community members to develop, test and validate AI solutions. The BHASHINI Mitra initiative was also highlighted as a channel through which Manipur institutions and language communities can contribute language data to strengthen the overall multilingual AI ecosystem.