• The MoU aims to enhance the development of accurate, multilingual, and standardised toponymic datasets in accordance with the National Geospatial Policy, 2022.

• What? MoU signed
• Entities: DIBD and Survey of India (SoI)
• Objective: Create accurate, multilingual, and standardised toponymic datasets
• Target: Over 16 lakh (1.6 million) locations across India
• Technology: AI-based speech-to-text and Natural Language Processing (NLP).
• Policy Alignment: National Geospatial Policy, 2022.

About SoI–BHASHINI Collaboration:
Support: The initiative supports the accelerated development of the National Geographical Name Information System (NGNIS) by digitising and standardising geographical names at scale.
Key Roles: SoI, as the national nodal agency, is responsible for the standardisation and maintenance of geographical names through large-scale toponymic field surveys conducted in local vernacular languages.

• The DIBD will deploy BHASHINI’s AI-powered indigenous language tools to convert vernacular audio recordings into validated, structured digital text, creating a comprehensive Toponymy Database of over 16 lakh locations.

Technology: The project uses AI, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), and language processing workflows for transcription, normalisation, and validation of geographical names.
Toponymy: The initiative will create a validated database of over 16 lakh Indian place names in local scripts, Devanagari, and Roman formats, ensuring accurate pronunciation and regional variations, fully aligned with the Survey of India Toponymy Manual (SITM) and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) standards.
Governance: The standardized datasets, powered by language AI, will strengthen India’s geospatial systems enhancing OSM (Open Series Maps), DM (Disaster Management), IP (Infrastructure Planning), and CCG (Citizen-Centric Governance) making DPI (Digital Public Infrastructure) more inclusive, efficient, and linguistically representative.
About BHASHINI (BHASHa INterface for India) :
Bhashini is an Indian government project under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) that helps people translate content between different Indian languages to make communication easier across the country.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Ammitabh Nag
Established – 2022