MoU between Digital India Bhashini and Kathmandu University (KU) for co-creating National Digital Infrastructure for ‘Voice First’ Language Translation platform for Nepal

The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) wi...

What Happened

The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure and Artificial Intelligence (DPI-AI) at Kathmandu University, Nepal.
The MoU establishes a framework to jointly develop a "Voice First" language translation platform for Nepal, including speech-to-text, text-to-speech, machine translation, and multilingual conversational AI.
The agreement was exchanged in the presence of the External Affairs Minister and the Nepalese Minister of Foreign Affairs, signalling its high diplomatic priority.
The partnership will also support preservation and digitisation of low-resource and underrepresented languages in the India-Nepal region.
In parallel, the two sides launched the linkage between India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Nepal's National Payments Interface for cross-border personal remittances.

Static Topic Bridges

Digital India Bhashini — Overview and Mandate

Bhashini (from Sanskrit: "speaker of languages") is India's national language technology platform, launched by the Prime Minister in July 2022. The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) is an Independent Business Division established by MeitY within the Digital India Corporation (DIC). Its mandate is to build a National Public Digital Platform for languages that democratises access to the internet and digital services in Indian languages by leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR).

Bhashini supports 36 Indian text languages, 23 Indian voice languages, and 35 international languages.
The platform processes over 15 million AI inferences per day and powers over 800 government websites.
Over 300 pre-trained AI models are available to developers and ecosystem partners via Open Bhashini APIs.
Bhashini is listed as a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) — a category that India champions internationally alongside Aadhaar, UPI, and DigiLocker.
The platform is built on open-source principles, enabling integration by both government and private developers.

Connection to this news: The MoU extends the Bhashini DPI model beyond India's borders, positioning it as a regional multilingual infrastructure — a key soft-power and digital diplomacy initiative.

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) as a Concept

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) refers to shared, open digital systems — typically built by governments — that serve as foundational layers enabling a wide range of applications and services. India's "DPI Stack" (Aadhaar + UPI + Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture / DEPA) has become a global model, endorsed at the G20 New Delhi Summit 2023 in the Global DPI Repository.

India's DPI approach emphasises open standards, interoperability, and data privacy.
Bhashini is India's contribution to the DPI Stack in the language/AI domain.
The G20 New Delhi Declaration (2023) recognised DPI as a tool for sustainable and inclusive growth.
Extending DPI to neighbours like Nepal is part of India's "Neighbourhood First" policy operationalised through technology.

Connection to this news: By helping Nepal build its national language DPI, India demonstrates the scalability of the DPI model in South Asia while deepening bilateral digital ties.

India-Nepal Bilateral Relations — Digital and Development Dimensions

India and Nepal share a unique bilateral relationship characterised by an open border, the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship, and deep people-to-people ties. The relationship has increasingly incorporated digital and technology cooperation as a new pillar, alongside traditional areas of trade, hydropower, and development assistance.

The 1950 India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship provides the framework for an open border and free movement of people.
India is Nepal's largest trade partner and a key source of development assistance.
The UPI-Nepal National Payments Interface linkage (launched June 2026) enables cross-border digital remittances — significant given the large Nepali workforce in India.
The "Voice First" language platform addresses Nepal's linguistic diversity, including Nepali and many indigenous languages.
The Kathmandu University MoU was signed during the visit of Nepal's Foreign Minister (June 5-7, 2026) — the first high-level diplomatic engagement of this kind in the current government's tenure.

Connection to this news: The Bhashini-Kathmandu University MoU is part of a broader package of digital diplomacy agreed during the Nepali Foreign Minister's visit, signalling a new phase in the India-Nepal technology partnership.

Language Technology and AI — Policy Context

India's National Language Translation Mission (NLTM), operationalised through Bhashini, is aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020's emphasis on mother tongue-based instruction and the Digital India programme's goal of bridging the digital divide for non-English speakers.

NEP 2020 mandates mother tongue as the medium of instruction up to at least Grade 5.
India has 22 constitutionally recognised Scheduled Languages under the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
"Low-resource languages" — those without large digital datasets — are particularly vulnerable to digital exclusion; Bhashini's open dataset initiative directly addresses this.
Speech-to-text and text-to-speech technologies have critical applications in governance (voice-based public service delivery), education, and accessibility.

Connection to this news: The India-Nepal collaboration on language AI aligns with both countries' development goals: digital inclusion for linguistically diverse populations and preservation of languages at risk of digital extinction.

Key Facts & Data

Bhashini launched: July 2022
Institutional home: Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD), under MeitY / Digital India Corporation
Languages supported: 36 text languages, 23 voice languages, 35 international languages
Daily AI inferences on Bhashini: over 15 million
Government websites powered by Bhashini: over 800
Pre-trained models available via Open Bhashini APIs: over 300
Eighth Schedule of the Constitution: 22 Scheduled Languages
G20 New Delhi Summit (2023): endorsed DPI as a global good
MoU signed during: visit of Nepal's Foreign Minister, June 5-7, 2026