News– The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has launched the Beta Version of “Adi Vaani”, India’s first AI-powered translator for tribal languages.
About Adi Vaani
- It is an AI-based translation tool that serves as the foundation for a future large language model dedicated to tribal languages.
- It is developed under the banner of Janjatiya Gaurav Varsh
- It is designed to bridge communication gaps between tribal and non-tribal communities, while safeguarding endangered tribal languages using advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI).
- The project combines advanced AI technologies with community-driven approaches to protect, promote, and revitalize tribal languages and cultures across India.
- It is developed by a national consortium of premier institutions led by IIT Delhi with BITS Pilani, IIIT Hyderabad, and IIIT Nava Raipurin collaboration withTribal Research Institutes (TRIs) in Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Meghalaya.
- The project aims to:
- Enable real-time translation (text and speech) between Hindi/English and tribal languages.
- Provide interactive language learning for students and early learners.
- Digitally preserve folklore, oral traditions, and cultural heritage.
- Support digital literacy, healthcare communication, and civic inclusion in tribal communities.
- Awareness on govt. schemes and important speeches.
- Scope & Languages In its Beta launch, Adi Vaani supports: Santali (Odisha), Bhili (Madhya Pradesh), Mundari (Jharkhand), Gondi (Chhattisgarh).
- Methodology & Features:
- AI Language Models: Refined deployment of models such as No Language Left Behind (NLLB) and IndicTrans2 for low-resource tribal languages.
- Community Participation: TRIs, experts, and communities are involved in data collection, validation, and iterative development.
- Functional Toolkit:
- Text-to-Text, Text-to-Speech, Speech-to-Text, Speech-to-Speech translations.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for digitizing manuscripts and primers.
- Bilingual dictionaries and curated repositories.
- Subtitles for Prime Minister’s speeches, health advisories (e.g., Sickle Cell Disease awareness), and information on government schemes and initiatives in tribal languages.
