IISc Launches ₹8.5 Lakh Hackathon to Build Multilingual AI Systems for India
Participants will get access to open-source datasets in 11 Indian languages.
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in collaboration with ARMMAN and ARTPARK, Bhashini, GIZ’s FAIR Forward, and Spire Lab, has announced a nationwide hackathon to develop next-generation multilingual and expressive Text-to-Speech (TTS) systems for India’s low-resource languages.
The initiative, titled Voice Tech for All, invites developers, researchers, students, and innovators to create AI-driven TTS solutions that can make digital communication more inclusive — particularly in public health and education.
Participants will get access to open-source datasets in 11 Indian languages, enabling them to build systems that can bring natural, regionally adapted voices to millions of users.
The hackathon seeks to tackle the challenge of building TTS models capable of accent and style transfer across SYSPIN’s nine languages — Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Bhojpuri, Kannada, Magadhi, Chhattisgarhi, and Maithili — along with English and Gujarati from the SPICOR TTS corpora.
The total prize pool stands at ₹8.5 lakh, with winning teams receiving funding and mentorship support.
The solutions developed through the challenge are expected to power community health initiatives and government communication platforms in the future.
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