♦ The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD), under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), on 2 June 2026 launched the VYOMA Innovation Challenge to encourage the development of open-source, multilingual and voice-first artificial intelligence solutions that can operate in offline and low-connectivity environments. The initiative has been launched in collaboration with Current AI and Kalpa Impact and aims to strengthen India’s multilingual AI ecosystem by supporting innovations that improve language accessibility, digital inclusion and access to technology.

♦ The challenge builds on Sunno Sutra, a multilingual, voice-first, open-source handheld AI reference device jointly developed by BHASHINI and Current AI. The device was unveiled at the IndiaAI Impact Summit 2026 and is designed to deliver conversational AI services across Indian languages without relying on cloud infrastructure.

♦ The VYOMA Innovation Challenge invites startups, researchers, students, academic institutions, MSMEs, industry partners and independent innovators to develop new applications and improvements for the Sunno Sutra platform. Participants are encouraged to explore innovative use cases, hardware enhancements, model optimisation and deployment-ready solutions that can make the device more efficient and suitable for diverse field conditions.