Govt picks Sarvam to build and deploy AI applications for the Indian military

Homegrown AI startup Sarvam has announced a five-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS) and Ministry of Defence. As part of this agreement, Sarvam will develop and deploy AI tech that will be used by the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force.The agreement establishes an umbrella framework for AI projects across the three Services as well as joint, tri-service and integrated organisations under HQ IDS. Under the MoU, Sarvam will create AI applications for operational, training and decision-support requirements, besides providing follow-on technical support. The financial value of the agreement and details of individual projects were not disclosed.The agreement is part of the government's push for Atmanirbharta, or self-reliance, in defence and the indigenisation of defence equipment and capabilities. It extends that objective to military AI through technology developed with Indian partners.“Sarvam exists to build AI in India, for India. The core of that mission is to put the country’s own intelligence into the systems it depends on. To work with the three Services on the nation’s defence is an honour and a privilege,” Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar said. “We are grateful to HQ IDS for its trust, and our team is committed to delivering for all three Services.” Military AI tech to run on Indian computeThe work under the MoU will be undertaken by Chanakya, Sarvam's firewalled division focused on national security and defence. Chanakya will use Sarvam's AI stack, including foundation models such as Sarvam 105B. Sarvam and HQ IDS will also work on projects of critical importance, including an AI fabric connecting elements of India's defence capabilities.The agreement focusses on using AI in multiple areas, including decision support, target acquisition and data fusion across the sensor-to-shooter loop. But human oversight will be retained over operational decisions. The proposed AI layer will be built in India using Indian data and computing infrastructure and deployed on sovereign infrastructure. The Indian armed services and joint organisations will gain access to common foundation models, agentic infrastructure, and geospatial and perception systems. This will allow doctrine and lessons learnt from projects undertaken for one Service to inform subsequent work for the others.This MoU comes at a time when governments around the world are using AI in their respective militaries. Earlier this year, the US government had a fallout with Anthropic over disagreements about how it could use AI in such cases. The Pentagon later signed an agreement with OpenAI.- Ends