India’s Digital India BHASHINI Division, operating under the Digital India Corporation of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has begun talks with Kathmandu University in Nepal to work together on language artificial intelligence. The discussions aim to develop AI tools that can better serve Nepali and other languages spoken across Nepal that currently lack strong digital representation.
Officials from the Digital India BHASHINI Division met with researchers at Kathmandu University’s Center for Digital Public Infrastructure and Artificial Intelligence, as well as with the university’s senior leadership. Both sides expressed interest in strengthening the technology landscape for Nepal’s linguistic communities.
What was discussed
The two organisations identified several focus areas for potential partnership:
- Building improved AI language models for Nepali, Newari, Tamang and Gurung languages
- Adding support for traditional scripts like Prachalit Lipi and Ranjana Lipi to digital systems
- Collecting and organising high-quality language data across different speakers and communities, which the organisations recognised as a major challenge
- Improving translation services between languages
- Creating voice-based solutions so people can interact with digital services in their own languages
The Digital India BHASHINI Division currently operates as a major platform for AI-powered language services in India. It supports 36 Indian text languages and 23 Indian voice languages, handles over 24 million AI inferences daily, and powers language features on more than 800 government websites.
What this means for you
If this collaboration moves forward, Nepali speakers and users of other Nepali community languages may eventually see better digital services, government websites and applications designed to work naturally in their own languages rather than requiring English or other dominant languages. The focus on voice-based solutions means people who cannot read or prefer speaking could access these services more easily. The work also aims to preserve and digitise traditional scripts that have cultural significance but face extinction in the digital world.