IIT Bombay has developed a technology to aid speech-to-speech translation from English to Marathi.

Titled the Bahubhaashak project, which is being developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay in collaboration with IIT Madras, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and IIIT Hyderabad, the technology enables speech-to-speech translation of over 40,000 videos available on Swayam Central AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) and National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). The attempt is in line with the vision of the National Education Policy 2020 to enable ease of learning in local languages.

Prof Pushpak Bhattacharya, from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay, who has played a key role in the development of the Bahubhaashak, said: “While IIT Bombay is working for languages such as Marathi and Hindi, other institutions are participating for more languages. The idea is to make it available in multiple languages. While the English-to-Marathi speech-to-speech translation is ready; we are also working on the Marathi-to-English speech-to-speech translation process.”

The Bahubhaashak is one of the key projects by IIT Bombay that will be showcased at IInvenTiv, an event featuring R&D projects of all 23 IITs to be held from October 14-15, 2022.

The IInvenTiv would showcase 75 projects from the 23 IITs, along with six showcase projects on diverse themes. Among the 75 projects, IIT Bombay will demonstrate eight of its projects, while also leading one of the six showcase projects.

Speaking about IIT Bombay’s participation in the event, Prof Subhasis Chaudhuri, the director of IIT Bombay, said: “IIT Bombay is committed to assisting the nation with world-class innovations that can help realize the vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat. In accordance with that, we are glad to be showcasing eight of our projects at the IInvenTiv 2022, which will bring the academia and the industry together under one roof to showcase India’s research and innovation capabilities and to seek out newer possibilities.”

In the robotics, sensors and actuators, and semiconductors sector, IIT Bombay would showcase the Matsya 5.0 AUV developed by Prof Leena Vachhani, Prof Hemendra Arya and team, and the Global Navigation Receiver Chip (Dhruva) developed for NAVIC and GPS, among others.