Kalaa Setu: India’s AI Startups Get a Multilingual Mission for Digital Bharat

In a path-breaking effort to transform digital governance and bridge India's linguistic gap, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, under its WaveX Startup Accelerator, has launched the "Kalaa Setu – Real-Time Language Tech for Bharat" Challenge. The all Indian challenge is calling for India's top AI startups to design scalable, homegrown solutions for generating real-time audio, video, and graphical content from text inputs, and in Indian languages.

 

Key Highlights
Multimedia Content Creation: Startups must develop AI solutions for:

 

Text-to-Video Generation: Computer-generated, on-demand video based on text.

 

Text-to-Graphics Generation: Informational infographics and visual illustrations.

 

Text-to-Audio Generation: Richly emotive, geographically nuanced voice synthesis.

 

Citizen-Centric Communication: The initiative aims to empower government ministries to convey region-based information—weather forecasts, exam scores, and health initiatives—in real time, in languages and formats that resonate with all Indians, from farmers and students to the elderly.

 

How to Join:

Bhasha Setu Challenge: This challenge is aimed at real-time language translation systems while working together. It is open for applications until 22nd July 2025.

 

Wider Perspective: Both businesses are India's attempt to use AI to make last-mile connectivity inclusive, with digital transformation representing the country's multicultural and multilingual diversity.

 

Source: Press Information Bureau, Convergence Now, The Federal