India accelerates AI development by backing 12 AI projects after Anthropic Fable 5 ban

Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 ban has raised global concern over cross-border access to advanced models, AI safety control, and the government’s role in regulating frontier AI models. The ban has reignited talks about “Sovereign AI,” which was previously dismissed due to the easy availability of powerful AI models.

Now, the recent restriction on Fable 5 access highlights how governments can influence or restrict who gets access, what features are allowed, or where certain models can be used. For this reason, many India-based tech leaders have urged the country to focus on building its own AI capabilities, with domestic models, computing infrastructure, and AI research ecosystems, to reduce dependence on foreign AI providers.

Must read: Anthropic Claude Fable 5 ban explained: Why US government restricted access for new AI models

With the growing need for AI independence, the Indian government has shortlisted over 12 AI startups and consortia under the Rs 10,371.92-crore IndiaAI Mission to develop a self-reliant AI ecosystem and ensure that Indian organisations have access to locally developed AI tools. Now the AI debate has shifted from data control to infrastructure ownership.

These 12 projects will focus on building different types of AI systems that will include language models, voice assistants, and multimodal AI that can work with text, images, and videos.

12 projects approved under IndiaAI Mission

Under the IndiaAI Mission, the government has approved 12 projects that include the IIT Bombay-led BharatGen consortium, Sarvam AI, GnaniAI, GanAI, Avataar AI, Fractal, Tech Mahindra, and others. 

It was highlighted that BharatGen will be getting Rs 1,058.52 crore support from the Indian government to build open-weight multilingual and multimodal models. Among the 12 projects, Sarvam AI received the largest allocation with Rs 246.72 crore in compute support. 

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Gnani AI is directed to build voice-native models, and the government has allocated Rs 177.27 crore in compute support. Here’s a detailed list of projects and government support planned:

Sarvam AI: Rs 246.72 crore
Gnani AI: Rs 177.27 crore
Gan AI: Rs 110.03 crore
Soket AI Labs: Rs 177.08 crore
Avataar AI: Rs 16.10 crore
BharatGen (IIT Bombay Consortium): Rs 1,058.52 crore
Fractal Analytics Ltd.: Rs 137.91 crore
Tech Mahindra Maker's Lab: Rs 2.66 crore
Zenteq (ZenteiQ.ai): Rs 206.49 crore
GenLoop (Genloop Intelligence): Rs 2.61 crore
Intellihealth (NeuroDX): Rs 49.50 crore
Shodh AI: Rs 9.40 crore