Maharashtra clears Rs 11.26 crore to roll out Sarvam AI across the government

Maharashtra is taking its use of AI beyond pilot projects. The state government has approved a two-year outlay of Rs 11.26 crore to deploy sovereign AI solutions from Sarvam AI across government departments.

The package will include Indus, an AI workspace for around 2,500 government users, along with voice-based citizen outreach and speech technologies for the state's MahaAI platform. This proposal was cleared by a High-Power Committee headed by the chief secretary, according to a Government Resolution.

Indus will support everyday government work

The main component of the deployment is Indus, which is designed to assist officials with routine knowledge and document-related tasks. The platform will support drafting and file noting, RTI response generation, document intelligence, data analysis and project workspaces.

It will also offer optical character recognition, or OCR, across Indian scripts, allowing officials to extract information from scanned documents.

Indus will support multilingual interaction in 22 languages, including Marathi. It is also planned to integrate with eOffice and NIC email wherever API access is available. The first-year indicative cost is Rs 5.63 crore, with the overall two-year outlay reaching Rs 11.26 crore.

Government data will stay within India

Data sovereignty is a central part of the deployment. According to the Government Resolution, Sarvam AI's proposed solutions will run on secure and audited infrastructure located entirely within India. This means government data is intended to remain within the country rather than being processed or stored outside its borders.

For government departments handling citizen records and official documents, keeping data within India could be an important consideration when adopting AI at scale.

Samvaad will handle citizen outreach

The package also includes Samvaad, Sarvam AI's voice and WhatsApp-based citizen outreach system. Maharashtra has approved a one-month pilot using Samvaad for tuberculosis awareness. The AI agent will make calls to TB patients in local languages and analyse call quality.

The pilot carries a one-time development charge of Rs 6 lakh and a usage fee of Rs 3 per minute. This could allow departments to conduct large-scale outreach without relying entirely on manual calling operations.

Speech AI is coming to MahaAI

The state has also approved the integration of Sarvam's Saaras speech-recognition model and Bulbul text-to-speech model into MahaAI for four months. Moreover, the arrangement will operate on a usage-based, no-commitment model. Saaras will cost Rs 0.50 per minute, while Bulbul will cost Rs 30 per 10,000 characters, excluding GST.

The commercial structure also includes a Foundation Partner subscription of Rs 1,200 per user per month for the first year, compared with a standard rate of Rs 2,500. Professional services, adoption support, maintenance and forward-deployed engineers are included separately in the approved package.

A wider push for sovereign AI

The Maharashtra deployment reflects a broader effort to bring Indian-built AI into public-sector workflows. For the state, the immediate focus is practical: helping officials process information, communicate with citizens and work across Indian languages.

If the rollout delivers the expected results, the deployment could offer a model for how governments can adopt AI while keeping greater control over their data, infrastructure and language requirements.