As part of its “Advancing Indigenous Foundation Models” white paper, India’s Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India lays out a strategy to develop the country’s artificial intelligence models and strengthen its digital infrastructure.
This white paper is an effort to shape India’s approach to artificial intelligence and is part of a larger series with similar goals.
The study stresses the need of indigenous foundation models trained on datasets relevant to India in order to improve openness, inclusion, and alignment with government goals.
Furthermore, it highlights the relevance of both large and small language models. SLMs are more efficient and domain-specific, whereas LLMs are more generic and can handle duties in a variety of industries.
The agricultural, hospital, educational, and micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) sectors might all benefit from these AI systems, which would also promote language inclusion and innovation across India’s digital ecosystem.

