New Delhi [India], June 7 (ANI): The Digital India Bhashini Division (DIBD), Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kathmandu University's Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure and Artificial Intelligence (DPI-AI), Nepal, to establish a collaborative framework for advancing Language AI, multilingual digital public infrastructure and inclusive digital ecosystems across India and Nepal.

The MoU was signed by Amitabh Nag, CEO, Digital India Bhashini Division and Professor Bal Krishna Bal, Associate Dean, Kathmandu University.

The exchange of the MoU took place in the presence of S Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister of India, and Shishir Khanal, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nepal, during bilateral engagements held in New Delhi. The occasion underscored the shared commitment of India and Nepal towards strengthening cooperation in emerging technologies, Digital Public Infrastructure, and inclusive digital transformation.

The partnership reflects the shared vision of India and Nepal to leverage technology for inclusive growth, social empowerment, and regional cooperation. Going beyond a technology collaboration, the MoU is envisioned as an initiative to strengthen people-to-people connections, preserve linguistic heritage, and enable equitable access to opportunities by overcoming language, literacy, and digital barriers across the region.

Under the MoU, the two institutions will collaborate on the development of high-quality Nepali language datasets, speech corpora, and multilingual AI resources, including speech-to-text, text-to-speech, machine translation, and multilingual conversational AI capabilities.

The partnership will also support the preservation and digitisation of linguistic and literary heritage of low-resource and underrepresented languages across the India-Nepal region, ensuring that communities whose languages risk digital extinction have access to AI-enabled tools and services in their mother tongue.

Through Bhashini's open and interoperable language technology ecosystem, the collaboration will support the Government of Nepal in extending digital public services to citizens in their preferred languages, reducing language, literacy and digital access barriers at the last mile.

The MoU further envisions joint research, capacity building, training programmes and pilot projects in Natural Language Processing (NLP), multilingual AI, and Digital Public Infrastructure, bringing together universities, researchers, language experts, and technology practitioners from both countries.

The partnership is also expected to create new economic and social opportunities for Nepali citizens, students, entrepreneurs, and professionals by enabling multilingual access to education, skilling, digital commerce, and public services, both within Nepal and across regional and global markets.

CEO of Digital India Bhashini Division, Amitabh Nag said, 'This partnership with Kathmandu University represents a significant step in India's commitment to building inclusive language technology for the region. BHASHINI's open Digital Public Infrastructure model has the potential to transform digital access for millions of citizens across South Asia, and this collaboration will help us extend that vision beyond India's borders, strengthening our shared linguistic and cultural heritage while building the next generation of multilingual AI for the Global South.'

Professor Bal Krishna Bal, Associate Dean at Kathmandu University, said, 'This MoU reflects a shared commitment between Nepal and India to harness the power of artificial intelligence for linguistic inclusion and social impact. Through collaboration between the DPI-AI Centre at Kathmandu University and Bhashini, we seek to advance research, innovation and capacity building in multilingual AI, ensuring that our rich linguistic heritage becomes a catalyst--not a barrier--for participation in the digital future.' (ANI)