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In a year dominated by familiar tech giants, Time Magazine’s 2025 AI 100 list has brought fresh attention to a trailblazer from India: Mitesh Khapra, Associate Professor at IIT Madras. While names like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg usually dominate such lists, Khapra’s inclusion signals a new global recognition of AI efforts aimed at empowering underrepresented communities. His work is transforming how millions of non-English speakers in India access technology, bridging a gap that has long limited the reach of AI.
Who is Mitesh Khapra?
Mitesh Khapra serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Madras. His professional journey spans stints as a software engineer at Infosys and LG, followed by research positions at Microsoft India and IBM. In 2016, he joined IIT Madras, focusing on Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Conversational Systems.
Khapra is also a co-founder of One Fourth Labs, a platform designed to make AI education accessible and affordable in India. Their mission is to create a skilled workforce capable of developing AI solutions that are both socially impactful and commercially viable.
Why Mitesh Khapra Made the Time AI 100 List
Khapra’s inclusion in Time100’s AI list stems from his groundbreaking work in making AI inclusive for India’s linguistic diversity. He recognized that Indian language technologies lag behind English due to a lack of sufficient data. While Western AI models excel in languages like English and even some well-represented Indian languages like Hindi, they struggle with less-represented languages.
To address this, Khapra co-founded AI4Bharat, which embarked on an ambitious project covering almost 500 of India’s 700 districts. The team recorded thousands of hours of voice data from people across diverse socio-economic and educational backgrounds, capturing all 22 official languages of India.
AI4Bharat partnered with the Indian government’s Bhashini program, supplying 80% of the open-source dataset that powers AI tools to help citizens access government services in their native languages. Khapra emphasizes the importance of collaboration: when big tech companies improve their AI models using this data, it benefits the entire nation.
Impact on Indian Society
AI4Bharat’s AI models are not just theoretical—they are actively deployed in real-world applications. The Supreme Court of India uses these models to translate official documents, while farmers can report issues regarding government subsidies via AI-powered voice bots. Khapra’s latest initiative, in collaboration with Sarvam AI, aims to build India’s first government-backed foundation AI model, a step toward technological sovereignty. Even if these models initially underperform compared to Western counterparts, Khapra argues that developing homegrown capabilities is crucial for national independence in AI.
Reshaping Academia
Khapra’s work is also transforming Indian academia. Whereas PhD students previously focused on English-language AI problems, the availability of Indian-language datasets now allows researchers to tackle domestic issues. This shift is helping foster innovation rooted in local challenges rather than imported solutions.
What Undercode Say:
Mitesh Khapra’s work is a prime example of AI being leveraged for social impact rather than mere commercial gain. By creating datasets in underrepresented languages, he is democratizing access to technology for millions who would otherwise remain on the digital sidelines. This is critical in a country like India, where linguistic diversity is immense and often overlooked in tech development.
The AI4Bharat initiative highlights the importance of contextual data. AI trained solely on English or other major languages fails to capture the nuances of local communication, which can lead to errors in translation, interpretation, or even policy implementation. By including voices from remote districts and different socio-economic backgrounds, Khapra’s work ensures AI systems are truly representative.
Moreover, Khapra’s approach is a blueprint for other emerging markets. Instead of waiting for Western tech giants to develop solutions, countries can build AI ecosystems that are both culturally aware and economically empowering. This enhances digital sovereignty, reduces reliance on foreign technology, and accelerates the growth of a skilled local workforce.
From an academic perspective, the availability of Indian-language datasets could reshape research priorities, enabling students and scholars to focus on domestic challenges like regional language translation, disaster management communication, and citizen-government interfaces. The broader implication is a generation of AI practitioners grounded in local realities, which can catalyze innovation that scales globally.
The commercial potential is equally significant. AI solutions tailored to local contexts can open new markets, improve governance, and enhance citizen engagement. Khapra’s work exemplifies how research-driven social innovation can align with economic growth, creating a virtuous cycle of technological adoption, education, and workforce development.
🔍 Fact Checker Results
✅ Mitesh Khapra is an Associate Professor at IIT Madras and co-founder of One Fourth Labs.
✅ AI4Bharat has partnered with the Indian government’s Bhashini program and contributes 80% of its dataset.
❌ No evidence suggests AI4Bharat’s models outperform all Western models; they are positioned as complementary tools for local language coverage.
📊 Prediction
AI4Bharat and Khapra’s initiatives are likely to accelerate India’s leadership in regional AI technologies over the next five years. As datasets expand and local AI models improve, more government services, education platforms, and commercial applications will leverage these tools. Long-term, India could become a hub for inclusive AI, setting an example for other linguistically diverse nations.
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References:
Reported By: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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