Assam's AI Initiatives Shine at India AI Summit

At the first-ever India AI Summit held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, two Assam-based initiatives, Digitizing Assam and Borno Labs, marked a significant presence amid global leaders and technology giants.

The summit brought together over 20 Heads of State, policymakers, global technology firms, startups, and academic institutions. Within this high-profile gathering, Assam’s contributions focused on integrating the Assamese language into India’s evolving AI ecosystem.

The participation highlighted how regional language datasets are being positioned within the national AI framework, particularly through collaboration with leading academic and technological institutions.

Digitizing Assam 2.0: Turning Heritage Into AI Infrastructure

Under the aegis of the Nanda Talukdar Foundation, Digitizing Assam has grown into one of India’s largest community-driven digital archives dedicated to regional language heritage. The initiative has digitised 2.46 million pages of Assamese literature and preserved more than 65,000 Xaasipaat manuscripts. It has established six archival verticals in collaboration with five universities and one IIT.

The project has received active support from Assam Jatiya Bidyalay and All Assam Students' Union (AASU), while Oil India Limited has sponsored the initiative.

Through formal collaboration with the BharatGen initiative led by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, the vast Assamese corpus has been integrated into a national AI framework. This integration enables the language data to be used for AI-based analysis and future Generative AI model training.

As a result, Assamese now has a structured, high-quality linguistic dataset capable of supporting research, language modelling, and AI innovation. AI-powered OCR technology has further converted scanned archival pages into machine-readable text. Users can now search the archive by typing keywords and retrieving results instantly, a shift from static preservation to dynamic knowledge access.

Kabyaneel Talukdar, AI Developer of the project, said, "With AI-based OCR, we have made 2.46 million pages keyword-searchable. This is not merely digitisation; it is about building a digital knowledge foundation for the Assamese language. In the future, this dataset will serve as a core base for Assamese AI development."

Borno Labs: Building Assamese AI From Scratch

Powering this transformation is Borno Labs, a young Assamese startup focused on developing AI tools tailored specifically for the Assamese language. The team has built speech-to-text AI models, created localised datasets, and contributed to converting over 2.76 million pages into searchable digital content.

Borno Labs is developing indigenous voice recognition, transcription, and language processing systems designed exclusively for Assamese users. Unlike adaptation-based models that rely on English-first frameworks, the startup is creating foundational technology centred on regional linguistic needs.

Co-founder Indraneel Talukdar stated, "Borno Labs is not merely adapting English tools. We are building AI technology for Assamese from the ground up. Our goal is to place regional languages at the centre of technological innovation."

Why Regional Language AI Matters

The presence of these initiatives at the national summit underscored a broader message: India’s AI expansion cannot remain English-centric. By integrating Assamese literature, manuscripts, and speech datasets into national AI architecture, Digitizing Assam and Borno Labs have positioned regional language technology within the country’s broader digital transformation strategy.

From Xaasipaat manuscripts to AI-powered search systems, Assam’s entry into the AI ecosystem reflects a shift from preservation to participation, ensuring that linguistic heritage becomes part of India’s algorithm-driven future.