India's Sarvam Unveils Indus: Multilingual AI Assistant Challenges Global Tech Giants

News Summary

Indian AI startup Sarvam has launched Indus, a multilingual AI chat application designed specifically for Indian users, marking its entry into the competitive consumer AI market dominated by global players like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. The app, currently available in beta on iOS, Android, and web platforms, is powered by Sarvam's newly unveiled 105-billion-parameter large language model and supports all 22 official Indian languages with seamless language switching capabilities.

NEW DELHI — Indian artificial intelligence startup Sarvam AI has stepped into the consumer AI battleground with the launch of Indus, a homegrown chat application that aims to compete directly with ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini in one of the world's fastest-growing AI markets.

The Bengaluru-based company unveiled Indus on February 20, 2026 (IST), just two days after presenting its large language models at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. The timing signals an aggressive push by Indian startups to establish technological sovereignty in the AI sector as global giants race to capture the country's massive user base of 1.4 billion people.

Built for India's Linguistic Diversity

Indus distinguishes itself through comprehensive support for India's 22 official languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati, and others. During initial testing, the app demonstrated the ability to handle seamless mid-conversation language switching—a user can start a query in English and switch to Hindi without restarting the session, reflecting natural speech patterns common across India.

The application accepts both text and voice input, delivering responses in text and audio formats. However, early users have noted some localization gaps, such as numbers being read in English even when the rest of the response is in another Indian language.

Powered by Homegrown AI Models

While Sarvam has not officially confirmed which model powers Indus, industry observers believe the app runs on the company's recently announced Sarvam-105B model, a 105-billion-parameter large language model developed entirely in India. The company also unveiled a smaller Sarvam-30B model at the summit, likely reserved for latency-sensitive scenarios requiring faster responses.

The 105-billion-parameter size positions Sarvam among the upper tier of AI models developed by Indian startups, designed to handle complex reasoning tasks, longer-context understanding, and nuanced multilingual communication. Indus's knowledge cutoff is June 2025.

Features and Capabilities

Indus offers functionality comparable to established global chatbots, positioning itself as a productivity assistant rather than a simple question-and-answer tool. Key features include:

• Voice Commands: Users can speak queries instead of typing, with responses delivered in audio format
• Web Search and Deep Research: The AI can search the internet or conduct comprehensive research to generate detailed answers
• Document Analysis: Users can upload images, PDFs, and other files for the AI to read and analyze
• Document Creation: The app supports drafting and editing documents directly within the interface
• AI Agents: The platform may include automated agents to handle routine digital tasks
• Multilingual Flexibility: Seamless switching between languages during conversations

Strategic Partnerships and Expansion Plans

At the India AI Impact Summit, Sarvam announced ambitious partnerships extending beyond the consumer chat application. The company is collaborating with HMD Global to integrate AI capabilities into Nokia feature phones, targeting users across the economic spectrum. A separate partnership with Bosch aims to develop AI-enabled applications for the automotive sector.

These collaborations reveal a multifaceted market approach combining direct consumer access through Indus with deep enterprise and original equipment manufacturer integrations across India's device ecosystem.

Beta Limitations and Gradual Rollout

As with most beta launches, Indus currently operates with several constraints that Sarvam acknowledges openly. Users cannot delete individual chat histories without deleting their entire account, and there is no option to disable the app's reasoning feature, which can occasionally slow response times.

Access to the application is being gradually expanded due to limited compute capacity. Co-founder Pratyush Kumar stated on X (formerly Twitter), "We're gradually rolling out Indus on a limited compute capacity, so you may hit a waitlist at first. We will expand access over time."

The app is currently available only to users in India, though it can be downloaded from both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Users must sign up using their phone number, Google account, Microsoft account, or Apple ID. Many users are placed on a waitlist and require approval or an invitation code to access the full platform.

Competing in a Crowded Market

Indus enters a fiercely competitive landscape where global AI leaders have already established strong footholds. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently revealed that ChatGPT has surpassed 100 million weekly active users in India. Anthropic reported that India accounts for 5.8 percent of global Claude usage, second only to the United States.

However, Sarvam is betting that localization built from the ground up—rather than adapted global products—will resonate more strongly with Indian users. The company argues that understanding India's complex linguistic landscape and cultural nuances matters as much as raw computing power.

Funding and Market Position

Founded in 2023, Sarvam has raised $41 million to date from prominent investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India), and Khosla Ventures. The startup is part of a growing cohort of Indian AI companies seeking to build domestic alternatives to global platforms as India strengthens control over its AI infrastructure.

The launch represents more than just another chat application entering an overcrowded market. It serves as a test case for whether regionally focused AI built specifically for local conditions can compete effectively with adapted global products in one of the world's most complex and fastest-growing technology markets.

India's AI Sovereignty Push

Indus arrives during a period of explosive growth for AI adoption in India, coinciding with government initiatives to strengthen the country's AI infrastructure. The India AI Impact Summit 2026, where Sarvam unveiled its models, drew infrastructure pledges exceeding $250 billion, according to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The Indian government has championed platforms like Bhashini to broaden access to AI across languages and demographics, signaling strong policy support for homegrown AI development.

Looking Ahead

For Indian users, Indus represents increased choice and potentially better-suited AI assistance tailored to local needs. For the broader AI industry, the launch underscores an emerging reality: the next wave of AI innovation may not come solely from Silicon Valley scaling globally, but from regional players solving local problems so effectively that their approaches become new industry standards.

Whether Indus can sustain momentum against entrenched global competitors will depend on Sarvam's ability to execute across multiple fronts—faster response times, more robust privacy controls, expanded language support, and consistent product quality. The company's emphasis on building AI "with the country, not just for it" suggests a long-term commitment to iterative development based on user feedback.

As India continues to emerge as a critical battleground for generative AI adoption, Sarvam's Indus represents a significant milestone in the country's journey toward AI self-reliance and technological sovereignty.