IIT Bombay Signs MoU with Japan's National Institute of Informatics to Advance Multilingual AI Research

The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Japan's National Institute of Informatics (NII) and the BharatGen Technology Foundation to jointly advance research and development in Large Language Models (LLMs) and multilingual Artificial Intelligence (AI). The agreement came into effect on July 1, 2026, and was highlighted in the Japan–India Joint Statement as a key initiative for AI cooperation between the two nations.

Background

The collaboration reflects the growing emphasis by both India and Japan on developing open, transparent, and sovereign AI systems. Instead of relying solely on proprietary AI models, the partnership aims to build AI technologies whose datasets, training methods, evaluation benchmarks, and models are openly available for scientific verification and improvement.

Objectives of the MoU

The partnership focuses on several important goals:

• Joint research and development of multilingual Large Language Models.
• Building AI systems capable of understanding multiple Indian and Japanese languages.
• Promoting open-source and trustworthy AI technologies.
• Strengthening academic exchange between Indian and Japanese researchers.
• Developing AI models with enhanced scientific reasoning capabilities.
• Encouraging collaborative innovation in language technologies.

Role of IIT Bombay

IIT Bombay is leading India's BharatGen initiative, a government-supported sovereign AI project that aims to develop foundational multimodal AI models for 22+ Indian languages. The initiative includes leading institutions such as IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Hyderabad, IIIT Hyderabad, IIT Mandi, IIM Indore, and IIIT Delhi.

Role of Japan's National Institute of Informatics

NII contributes through its Research and Development Center for Large Language Models (LLMC) and the LLM-jp Project, both dedicated to creating transparent, reliable, and scientifically verifiable AI foundation models. These initiatives promote open research while ensuring AI safety and accountability.

Significance of the Collaboration

This MoU is significant because it:

• Strengthens India–Japan scientific cooperation in AI.
• Supports the development of multilingual AI for diverse linguistic communities.
• Promotes open and responsible AI research.
• Enhances global collaboration in trustworthy AI.
• Helps build AI systems tailored to regional languages and cultural contexts.
• Creates opportunities for student exchanges, joint research projects, and academic partnerships.

Educational Importance

For students and researchers, this collaboration offers:

• Greater opportunities for international AI research.
• Exposure to cutting-edge multilingual AI technologies.
• Improved research collaborations between Indian and Japanese institutions.
• Better career prospects in AI, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Machine Learning.
• Development of AI tools that can improve education, governance, healthcare, and digital accessibility across multiple languages.

Conclusion

The MoU between IIT Bombay, Japan's National Institute of Informatics, and BharatGen Technology Foundation represents an important milestone in global AI research. By combining India's expertise in multilingual AI with Japan's leadership in open and trustworthy AI development, the partnership aims to create next-generation language models that are transparent, inclusive, and beneficial for researchers and society worldwide.