During his address at a virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Prime Minister Narendra Modi said they would be happy to share India's AI-based language platform, Bhashini, with everyone to remove language barriers within the SCO. This can serve as an example of digital technology for inclusive growth. 

PM Modi was sharing India's AI-based language platform, Bhashini, with SCO member countries to remove language barriers within the international grouping. 

In 2022, the Government of India unveiled Bhashini. This native AI-based language platform can transcend language barriers by translating in real time and allowing people from different languages to interact with one another over digital platforms.  

The SCO was founded in 2001, with its founding nations being Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In 2019, India and Pakistan became permanent members of the organization. On Tuesday, Iran also gained permanent membership in SCO. 

Despite being a multination organization, the official languages of SCO are Mandarin and Russian. Emphasizing the linguistic barriers of the organization, as a significant step to build inclusive growth, PM Modi introduced Bhashini to SCO. 

The Bhashini project in India was championed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). It was introduced to provide a technology-based solution to digital language barriers; The platform harnesses technologies such as AI/ML and NLP to develop and share open-source models, tools and solutions for Indian languages. The aim was to bring the non-English speaking populations of the nation to the global internet and help them access it in their language. 

The need for an AI-based language translation system was identified as one of the key missions by the PM's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).