New Developers’ Toolkit Aims to Build Open and Inclusive Speech Technologies in India

New Delhi- As India steadily advances toward a voice-first digital ecosystem, the transition must be anchored in robust policy frameworks and practical implementation strategies, said Amitabh Nag, CEO of the Digital India BHASHINI Division.

Against the backdrop of voice technologies becoming central to digital inclusion, a new Policy Report and Developers’ Toolkit on voice technologies was unveiled at the India AI Summit Expo 2026 in the capital.

Explaining the initiative, Nag said the report and toolkit together offer a clear roadmap for developing open, inclusive, and responsible speech technologies in India. While the policy report focuses on aligning the broader ecosystem, the Developers’ Toolkit converts these principles into actionable guidance across the AI lifecycle—ranging from data collection and model building to deployment and governance.

The policy report recommends several targeted measures to strengthen India’s voice-technology ecosystem. These include recognising foundational speech datasets as digital public goods, improving openness and representativeness of speech models, investing in sustainable public infrastructure, and embedding safeguards to prevent misuse while still encouraging innovation.

The toolkit has been jointly developed by ARTPARK at Indian Institute of Science, Digital Futures Lab, and Trilegal, with support from Bhashini and the FAIR Forward – AI for All initiative. The latter is implemented by GIZ and funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

In a linguistically diverse country like India, voice technologies form a crucial layer of digital public infrastructure by reducing barriers to access through speech-based applications. At the same time, their development raises important challenges related to data governance, inclusion, openness, quality standards, and responsible use.

Complementing the policy analysis, the Developers’ Toolkit outlines the key hurdles faced by developers working with Indian-language voice datasets and applications. It highlights structural gaps in the ecosystem, such as uneven data representation, weak quality assurance, limited evaluation practices, and fragmented governance mechanisms.

Emphasising the broader impact of voice AI, Dr Ariane Hildebrandt, Director-General at Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, said that when voice-based AI functions effectively in local languages and dialects, it becomes a powerful gateway to public services, healthcare, education, and economic participation.

With inputs from IANS