IndiaAI Mission releases indigenous foundation models EKA-1 and Dhīr series
The Ministry of Electronics and IT unveiled three homegrown AI models designed for use in secure and low-connectivity environments.
The IndiaAI Mission, under the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), released three indigenous foundation models on Tuesday. The models include EKA-1, developed by Soket Labs Technology and Research, and Dhīr 2B and Dhīr 5B, developed by ZenteiQ AiTech Innovations, according to The Hindu.
The models were unveiled at an event attended by MeitY Secretary S Krishnan and senior officials. The government stated that access to subsidised national AI compute infrastructure and support for research expenses enabled the development of these models.
EKA-1 is a 26.3 billion-parameter model trained on approximately 7.5 trillion tokens. It covers all 22 scheduled Indian languages and English, and is designed for mathematics, code, reasoning, and agentic use. Soket CEO Abhishek Upperwal said the model is tailored to India's banking, financial services, and cybersecurity landscape.
ZenteiQ's Dhīr 2B and Dhīr 5B are open-source models supporting English and 10 Indian languages. ZenteiQ CEO Prof Sashikumar said the lightweight architecture allows on-device deployment on mobile phones without cloud connectivity, which improves privacy and security.
S Krishnan said these indigenous models strengthen India's technological and strategic autonomy in artificial intelligence. He noted they could improve productivity across government, industry, research, and education, particularly through deployment in air-gapped environments.
The models are accessible through the AIKosh platform for researchers, students, innovators, and the general public.