Nasscom has announced plans to create AI benchmarks specifically tailored for Indian languages, aiming to strengthen the evaluation and development of models that cater to the country’s linguistic diversity. The initiative seeks to address gaps in global datasets and ensure that AI systems are assessed against culturally relevant and locally nuanced criteria.

The industry body has begun consultations with technology companies, academic institutions, and AI researchers to design benchmarks that accurately reflect the linguistic, semantic, and contextual complexities of Indian languages. The effort is intended to improve AI performance in applications such as natural language processing, machine translation, sentiment analysis, and conversational AI.

Global AI datasets often underrepresent Indian languages, leading to models that may perform suboptimally for millions of users across India. By establishing localized benchmarks, Nasscom aims to foster more inclusive AI development, ensuring that technologies are both effective and sensitive to regional contexts. These benchmarks will enable developers to evaluate and fine-tune models for a range of Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi, among others.

The initiative also emphasizes fairness, transparency, and accountability in AI systems. By incorporating local cultural nuances and linguistic diversity, Nasscom hopes to reduce biases and improve model reliability for Indian users. The benchmarks are expected to guide both startups and established tech firms in developing products that are more accurate and socially responsible.

Experts believe that standardized evaluation metrics for Indic AI models could accelerate innovation and adoption of AI technologies in India, particularly in sectors like education, healthcare, customer service, and government services. With these benchmarks, AI systems can be better aligned with real-world user needs and local language dynamics.

Nasscom plans to release the first set of consultation outcomes and proposed benchmark guidelines in the coming months. This initiative represents a strategic step toward making AI development in India more relevant, accountable, and inclusive, ensuring that Indian languages and cultural contexts are adequately represented in the global AI ecosystem.