The Silicon Review ^Asia

A similar device like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home could be launched in India soon. In a recent development, NITI Aayog has made an announcement that it is partnering with different premier institutes including IIT across the country to launch an interface.

The interface will be designed exclusively for users to tackle daily issues related to health, education, agro skills,and skills. Various e-commerce firms have shown interest like that.

Similar to Alexa, the device will act as a virtual assistant for carrying out music playbacks, streaming podcasts, voice interaction, playing audiobooks and deliver real-time information about sports, events, weather,and traffic.  Right now, such devices communicate mostly in French, English, Spanish,and German but the new device will be powered by 18 different Indian languages.

According to reports, NITI Aaayog has joined hands with IIT, Patna to build an NLP, natural language processor and the development will be carried out under the institute’s director, Pushpak Bhattacharyya. The team will conduct a market survey for the government to refurbish the existing technology to match up with the Indian languages.

There was a confirmation made by Mr. Bhattacharyya about the new technology development in Indian languages.  IIT Patna along with other 14 institutes is working together. The project is commissioned by the ministry of information technology.

In order to promote the project’s commercial production, the government of India plans to partly fund the development. It will pave the way for both local users and corporates to seize the opportunity for business growth.