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The company is developing three model variants: Sarvam-Large for advanced reasoning and generation, Sarvam-Small for real-time interactive applications, and Sarvam-Edge for compact on-device tasks, said one of the the company’s two co-founders.

The government has selected Bengaluru-based start-up Sarvam to build the country’s first indigenous artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) amid waves made by China’s low cost model DeepSeek. The start-up, chosen from among 67 applicants, will receive support from the government in terms of compute resources to build the model from scratch.

Sarvam is the first start-up to get approved for sops under India’s ambitious Rs 10,370 crore IndiaAI Mission to build a model, with the government currently assessing hundreds of other proposals. Sarvam said its model will be capable of reasoning, designed for voice, and fluent in Indian languages, and it will be ready for population-scale deployment.

A senior official said in terms of government support, the company will receive access to 4,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) for six months for the company to build and train its model. The model is not expected to be open-sourced, but will be fine-tuned particularly for Indian languages. The GPUs will be provided to Sarvam by companies separately selected by the government to set up AI data centres in India.

“This (Sarvam’s) model will have 70 billion parameters and many innovations in programming as well as engineering. With these innovations, a 70 billion parameter (model) can compete with some of the best in the world,” said IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

As part of Sarvam’s LLM proposal, the company is developing three model variants: Sarvam-Large for advanced reasoning and generation, Sarvam-Small for real-time interactive applications, and Sarvam-Edge for compact on-device tasks, said Pratyush Kumar, one of the the company’s two co-founders.

The development comes amid the meteoric rise of DeepSeek, a low-cost foundational model from China, which shook up the AI industry. DeepSeek’s entry into the AI space – touted for being open source, its accuracy and claims that it has been built at a fraction of the cost as its US competitors – sent Nvidia’s stock on a downward spiral, since its R1 model was trained on inferior GPUs compared with the likes of OpenAI.

Sarvam’s model will be built, deployed, and optimised in India, using local infrastructure and developed by a new generation of Indian talent. This initiative aims to promote strategic autonomy, accelerate domestic innovation, and secure India’s leadership in AI for the long term, the company said in a press statement.

Vivek Raghavan, also a co-founder of Sarvam, said, “This is a crucial step toward building critical national AI infrastructure. Our goal is to build multi-modal, multi-scale foundation models from scratch. When we do, a universe of applications unfolds. For citizens, this means interacting with AI that feels familiar, not foreign. For enterprises, this means unlocking intelligence without sending their data beyond borders”.

Earlier this year, the government had also selected 10 companies to supply 18,693 GPUs — high-end chips needed to develop machine learning tools — that can go into developing a foundational model. This is more than the initial aim of the IndiaAI Mission, under which the government was looking to procure 10,000 GPUs.

The companies empaneled to provide the GPU services include Jio Platforms, the Hiranandani Group-backed Yotta, Tata Communications, E2E Networks, NxtGen Datacenter, CMS Computers, Ctrls Datacenters, Locuz Enterprise Solutions, Orient Technologies, and Vensysco Technologies.

source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)

The finale took place at Gurugram, Haryana on April 24. The final match was played between Karnataka and Punjab, in which Karnataka won by four runs.

The Karnataka Deaf Cricket team won the VIII National T20 Cricket Championship for the Deaf held at Kadarpur, Haryana. Held from April 19 to 25, the Karnataka team in the Group B category, played 5 matches, finally badging as the winner of the championship. The championship was organised by the All-India Sports Council of the Deaf, New Delhi, in collaboration with the Haryana Sports Council of the Deaf.

The finale took place at Gurugram, Haryana on April 24. The final match was played between Karnataka and Punjab, in which Karnataka won by four runs. Karnataka, which batted first, scored 177 for seven wickets and Punjab, chasing the target, came close to victory, but fell short by five runs (173), losing seven wickets. Karnataka’s skipper Subramani Singh scored the maximum runs (45), followed by vice-captain Souban Armar scoring 34 runs. In his four-over spell, Subramani Singh conceded 27 runs and claimed 2 wickets.

The members of the cricket team, who are from different parts of Karnataka, would practice by themselves in different private coaching centres and come together to practice once every week on the BLC ground. “The private coaching is very expensive, I had to pay Rs 1,000 per day for my son’s practice sessions,” shared Shiva Kumar, father of Kushal JS, one of the players.

We worked very hard to win this title and we are very happy that our hard work finally paid off, shared the team members. The winning came at an expenditure of Rs 10,000 per player. The match along with travel, food, practice and other expenses is a huge amount of money, which often creates a financial struggle for the player and their families. “Poor people like us struggle financially,” shares Shiva Kumar. But I ignore it to see the happiness on my son’s face,” he adds.

“We wish the government could fund us with sufficient money for the games, as they are just like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. They too play for their homeland, finally winning the championship,” Kumar concludes.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

The hospital focuses on providing treatment to children of any background.

 Humanitarian leader Madhusudan Sai was conferred Fiji’s highest honour, the ‘Companion of the Order of Fiji’, by the President of Fiji Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu at the State House of Fiji on Friday.

Madhusudan Sai’s influence in Fiji is reflected through the creation of the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Children’s Hospital, the first state-of-the-art, fully free children’s hospital in the South Pacific.

The hospital focuses on providing treatment to children of any background.

His other initiative, the Sai Prema Foundation in Fiji, works for social welfare and humanitarian service across the nation, addressing issues like healthcare, education, disaster relief, and food security.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

Udupi Cochin Shipyard Ltd. (USCL) on Wednesday delivered the first in a series of six 3,800 T dead-weight dry cargo vessels, Wilson Eco 1, to M/s. Wilson Ship Management AS, Norway, the largest short sea shipping company of Europe in Mangaluru.

The formal delivery programme was organised at New Mangalore Port here in the presence of New Mangalore Port Authority (NMPA) chairman A.V. Ramana and senior officers of NMPA. Senior officials of M/s Wilson Ship Management AS, Einar Torsnes, Chief Financial Officer, Sergey Bogdashov, New Build Superintendent and the Wilson site team were present. USCL CEO A Harikumar, General Manager CEO, UCSL and Sivaram N Swamy and others were present.

In the last three years, Udupi shipyard in a release here said it has constructed and delivered eight aluminium hulls for Cochin Shipyard Ltd. for the Kochi Water Metro Project; eight tuna long liner cum gillnetters under the Pradhan Mantri Mathsya Sampada Yojana; two 62 tonne bollard pull ASTDS tugs to M/S Ocean Sparkle Ltd., an Adani harbour services company, and two 70-tonne bollard pull ASTDS tugs to M/s Polestar Maritime Ltd., complying with the Atma Nirbhar Bharat initiative of the Union government.

The shipyard has also signed orders for construction of another 11 70-T bollard pull tugs with M/s Ocean Sparkle and one 70-T bollard pull tug with M/s Polestar Maritime. The contracts signed with Ocean Sparkle Limited for construction of eleven 70-T tugs is the largest series tug construction order ever signed by an Indian shipyard.

Wilson Eco 1 is designed as an all-weather ship for unrestricted operation with unmanned machinery space certification. It is also equipped with all navigation and communication equipment as per the latest class and flag requirements. Under “Make in India Make for the World” initiative of UCSL, the shipyard has used steel manufactured domestically for construction of the entire vessel, including the piping systems.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

City’s tennis prodigy Padmapriya Ramesh Kumar completed a double fete at the recently concluded Asian U-14 and Junior Ranking Tennis Tournament 2025 at Malancha Niwas, Agartala, by winning both Singles and Doubles tournament.

In the Singles finals, Padmapriya defeated Diya Ravikumar 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 and in the Doubles, she partnered with Diya Ravikumar and defeated Maria Patel and Dhitri Sandra in straight sets 6-2, 6-0. This talented tennis player is currently ranked 6 in U-14 category in the country.

It may be recalled that Padmapriya had also emerged victorious in U-14 National Series Singles Tournament and ended up winning the runner-up trophy in the Doubles tournament at Jassowal in Punjab recently.

She is being coached by Raghuveer Ponnuswamy in city. Padmapriya, an 8th std. student of Excel Public School, is the daughter of Dr. P. Ramesh Kumar, Conservator of Forests (Project Tiger), Mysuru and Dr. Malathi Priya, Conservator of Forests (Mysuru Circle).

source/content: starofmysore.com (headline edited)

Prof. Suresh Renukappa, Director of the Centre, stated that the centre would focus on climate resilience, healthcare, smart cities and villages, energy security, waste-to-wealth initiatives, pollution control, and the Brand Bengaluru initiative.

Dr. M.C. Sudhakar, Minister for Higher Education of Karnataka, inaugurated the Wolverhampton-Bangalore Research and Innovation Centre (WBRIC) at the newly-established academic wing of Bangalore City University (BCU) in Bengaluru on April 22. The centre is a collaborative initiative between BCU and the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom.

Dr. Sudhakar highlighted its potential to open new academic and research avenues for students across Karnataka, emphasising the government’s commitment to supporting higher education and research in public universities.

Prof. Suresh Renukappa, Director of the Centre, stated that the centre would focus on climate resilience, healthcare, smart cities and villages, energy security, waste-to-wealth initiatives, pollution control, and the Brand Bengaluru initiative.

In his keynote address, Prof. Prashant Pillai, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton, mentioned that the centre will facilitate scholar exchange programmes, joint PhD opportunities, seminars, and conferences to foster international academic collaboration.

Prof. Ebrahim Adia, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton, underscored the importance of the historic academic ties between India and the UK. He stressed the value of such international collaborations.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)