Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], October 8 (ANI): The Karnataka government will leverage Bhashini, the AI-powered language technology platform, to make digital governance and citizen services more accessible in local languages and dialects, State Information Technology, Biotechnology and e-Governance Minister Priyank Kharge said on Thursday.

Speaking after inaugurating a Bhashini workshop organised by the Department of e-Governance at Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru, for officials from various government departments, Priyank Kharge said, "Karnataka is one state, but it is many worlds. Our language, dialects and cultural contexts vary significantly across regions. If technology is to truly make governance more accessible, it must speak to citizens in a language they understand. Bhashini gives us an opportunity to use AI, voice and translation technologies to bridge this gap. We should leverage it to make our 700-plus citizen services under Praja Seva and e-Governance simpler, more intuitive and more accessible. The question is not whether citizens can adapt to technology, but whether technology can adapt to citizens."

According to a press release, the workshop focused on exploring the application of AI-powered language and voice technologies to make government services simpler, more inclusive and citizen-centric.

Karnataka, with its diverse linguistic landscape, has significant regional variations in language, dialect and cultural context. While Kannada is the predominant language, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Urdu, Tulu, Beary and other languages are widely spoken across different parts of the state.

"This is also an opportunity for Karnataka's startup ecosystem to build solutions for real public-sector challenges. Through our Government First Policy, the government can become the first customer for innovative startups, while DeepTech and AI innovations can access grants of up to Rs 1 crore. I invite the Bhashini team to the Bengaluru Tech Summit to showcase this technology globally and explore how we can expand its use across Government-to-Citizen services. Ultimately, AI must be measured by the difference it makes to people's lives," said Minister Priyank Kharge.

Amitabh Nag, Chief Executive Officer of the Digital India division of the Central government, spoke about Bhashini and its capabilities. Harsh Gupta, Principal Secretary, Praja Seva Department, delivered the introductory remarks.

Principal Secretary, Department of e-Governance, Pankaj Kumar Pandey; Secretary, Department of Information and Public Relations, J Manjunath; Director, Bhoyer Harshal Narayanrao, and other senior officials were also present. (ANI)