AI-powered Bhashini may soon transcribe, translate Kerala HC proceedings

Bhashini was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of the Digital India Week 2022 at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

Bhashini, an artificial intelligence language project under the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), may soon power automatic transcription and translation of Kerala High Court proceedings, sources have said.

As part of the initial plan, through Bhashini, which leverages AI to create language datasets and develop language-based technology solutions, a proof of concept (PoC) will be undertaken to automatically transcribe court proceedings in English or Malayalam.

If the proceedings are in English, through Bhashini's APIs, they will be automatically transcribed and translated into Malayalam or any other regional language. Similarly, if the proceedings are in Malayalam, they can be transcribed into English or any of the 22 regional languages.

"The transcription will be automatically captured with the help of APIs, and uploaded simultaneously on a document editor where court clerks can edit for accuracy," a source said, adding it will dramatically reduce time for court officials.

APIs are application programming interfaces that allow two or more computer programmes or applications to talk to each other. An example of API usage is the “log-in using Facebook/Twitter/Google” feature that is found on several websites. Applications with this feature leverage APIs of Facebook, Twitter and Google to authenticate the user with each login.

AI-powered

Launched in 2022 under the National Language Translation Mission (NLTM) by MeitY, Bhashini aims to build a National Public Digital Platform for languages and to increase the content in Indian languages on the internet substantially.

As part of the offering for the Kerala High Court, a native document editor will be developed where multiple court officials can simultaneously work on editing transcriptions, sources said. Popular document editing platforms like Google Docs would be avoided for security purposes.

Another key component of the project would be to develop and design a workbench for the high court officials, which would take into account features such as user interface and data management.

MeitY will involve startups and innovators who can develop a full-fledged workbench and a homegrown document editor. A request for the proposal would soon be floated, sources said.

MeitY's Bhashini initative includes projects such as Bhashadaan, an initiative to crowdsource language inputs for multiple languages.

"The aim here is to create large datasets for Indian languages, which
can be used to train AI models for use by different stakeholders to create products or services...," a PIB release said of Bhashadaan.