Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a new initiative aimed at integrating India's linguistic heritage with modern technologies, revealing that the Central Sanskrit University in Delhi will introduce a B.Tech program in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

While addressing the 135th episode of Mann Ki Baat, Modi mentioned that the initiative signifies a crucial move towards merging contemporary technology with India's age-old knowledge frameworks. He believes the initiative aims to create AI tools for Indian languages and speed up the digitization and preservation of historical texts and manuscripts.

"This represents an important advancement in combining contemporary technology with India's ancestral wisdom." "The Prime Minister stated that it will promote the creation of innovative AI tools for Indian languages and speed up the digitization and safeguarding of our historical texts and manuscripts."

The announcement arrives as India persists in growing its AI ecosystem, with a heightened emphasis on developing large language models and AI applications designed for local languages. The nation's AI goals have also gained policy support through efforts designed to enhance digital public infrastructure and bolster local AI capabilities.

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For the language technology ecosystem in India, the initiative might help develop a bigger group of engineers skilled in both AI and traditional languages. Such abilities are becoming more significant as tech firms, startups, and government entities develop multilingual AI models, speech recognition technologies, and translation software tailored for India's varied language environment.

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The initiative aligns nicely with other attempts to digitally safeguard India's cultural and literary legacy. Technologies for optical character recognition, text digitization, and translation enhanced by AI are anticipated to increasingly facilitate access to historical manuscripts and archives for research and educational purposes.

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In his speech, Modi conveyed his warm regards to the Central Sanskrit University, characterizing the initiative as a means to equip young professionals for the AI age while ensuring their ties to India's knowledge heritage.