CoRover Unveils BharatGPT Mini: India’s First Offline Multilingual AI Model
The compact AI model promises offline, privacy-focused, and multilingual AI access for millions across India.
A Gamechanger for India’s AI Landscape
In a significant leap for India’s AI ecosystem, CoRover, an Indian AI startup, has launched BharatGPT Mini, the country’s first offline, multilingual Small Language Model (SLM).
The launch was officiated by Union Minister Jitin Prasada at the prestigious VivaTech 2025 conference in Paris.
- Unlike large, cloud-dependent AI models, BharatGPT Mini operates fully offline, running on low-end devices.
- It boasts 534 million parameters, making it compact yet powerful enough for on-device AI performance.
- The model supports 14 Indic languages, addressing India’s linguistic diversity.
Designed For Real-World Indian Challenges
As India’s internet infrastructure remains patchy and data privacy concerns continue to rise, BharatGPT Mini arrives as a practical solution.
- The model is built entirely in India, using CoRover’s proprietary conversational datasets.
- It is optimised for edge and server deployments, making it suitable for use in rural areas, remote locations, and on devices with limited computing power.
Speaking at the launch, CoRover CEO Ankush Sabharwal emphasised the model’s significance:
- “BharatGPT Mini works offline, making it ideal for citizens and businesses alike,” he said.
- The model enables access to healthcare, education, banking, and government services in 14 Indian languages, simply through conversation.
- Sabharwal highlighted that existing LLMs often miss the mark in India’s decentralised and resource-constrained environments.
BharatGPT Mini: Empowering Enterprises & Citizens
Currently available in a limited release via CoRover Builder, a no-code AI assistant platform, BharatGPT Mini is designed to be versatile:
- It supports text, voice, and video inputs for conversational AI.
- Sectors such as healthcare, education, government services, and banking are key focus areas.
This approach aligns with India’s push to democratise technology and bring AI to the grassroots level.
Fueling India’s $17 Billion AI Market
Founded by Ankush Sabharwal, Kunal Bhakhri, and Manav Gandotra, CoRover has established itself as a pioneer in conversational AI, specialising in multilingual, multimodal, and multichannel AI agents.
The company raised $4 million (INR 33.4 Cr) last year in a round led by Venture Catalysts, accelerating its growth trajectory.
- India’s AI market is expected to cross $17 billion by 2030, driven by the need for privacy-focused, smaller AI models.
- CoRover estimates that SLM adoption among SMEs will grow fivefold by FY26.
- Integrating BharatGPT Mini into projects could boost operational efficiency by 60% to 70%, according to the company.
While LLMs continue to play a role in complex, general-purpose AI, compact models like BharatGPT Mini are set to power the next wave of AI accessibility in India, especially for underserved regions and businesses with limited resources.
