In News:

• VoicERA, an open-source end-to-end Voice AI stack, was launched at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 on the BHASHINI National Language Infrastructure, marking a major expansion of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).
• The initiative was launched by the Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) under the Digital India Corporation (DIC), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

What is VoicERA?

• VoicERA is an open-source, end-to-end Voice AI execution stack deployed on BHASHINI (National Language Infrastructure).
• It functions as a national execution layer for multilingual Voice and Language AI, enabling scalable and secure deployment of speech-based systems across government and research ecosystems.

Institutional Framework

• Launched at: India AI Impact Summit 2026
• Developed by:
  • Digital India BHASHINI Division (MeitY)
  • EkStep Foundation
  • COSS
  • IIIT Bengaluru
  • AI4Bharat

Objectives

• Enable citizens to access government services through natural speech interfaces across Indian languages.
• Provide an interoperable and open-standard framework to reduce duplication and vendor lock-in.
• Ensure secure, scalable deployment of multilingual Voice AI systems for governance and innovation.

Key Features

1. Open-Source & Digital Public Good

• Modular design for easy adoption and integration.
• Reduces dependency on proprietary systems.

2. Pluggable & Interoperable Architecture

• Compatible with existing government applications and APIs.
• Supports seamless integration across departments.

3. Cloud & On-Premise Deployment

• Flexible hosting options depending on security and operational needs.

4. Multilingual Voice AI

• Real-time speech recognition.
• Conversational AI systems.
• Multilingual telephony support at population scale.

5. Secure Execution Layer

• Ensures safe processing of voice data.
• Enables scalable citizen engagement.

Expansion of BHASHINI’s Role

With VoicERA integration, BHASHINI’s capabilities expand from:

• Translation services
• Language technology tools

to:

• Real-time speech systems
• Conversational AI
• Voice-enabled citizen service delivery

This marks a shift toward voice as a primary interface for governance, especially for non-textual and non-English-speaking users.

Governance Applications

Departments can rapidly deploy voice-enabled services in:

• Agriculture advisories
• Education support
• Livelihood services
• Grievance redressal
• Citizen feedback systems
• Government scheme discovery