An estimated 2.2 per cent of the Indian population lives with disabilities. Traditional infrastructure and services in the country often fail to account for the diverse needs of this segment of our population. This can create barriers in communication, education and access. Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly in the fields of language processing and visual recognition, represents a powerful new frontier for breaking down these barriers.
AI can personalise assistive technology and connect data systems, offering real-time solutions that are also personalised. This focus on leveraging AI to build a more accessible and inclusive digital and physical society was the theme driving the Mint All About AI Tech4Good Awards, sponsored by Salesforce, in the Best Use of AI for Empowering People with Disabilities category.
In this recognition, Sarvam AI got the Gold award ad Ridlan AI Foundation got the Silver award for their unique technological solutions. Both winning entries demonstrate how deep technology can create tangible gains in inclusivity and dignity with a localised context.
Watch the highlights from the Awards Summit below,
Gold Winner: Sarvam AI
Sarvam AI addressed the digital and linguistic divide in India, which severely limits AI adoption and access. Most existing AI models are built for western data and languages. Due to this, millions of Indian users and institutions remain underserved. Sarvam AI is leveraging Generative AI to become India’s next digital infrastructure layer.
By pioneering language models, speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies tailored for local context, the company enables machines to understand and communicate naturally in a range of Indian languages. This has helped in democratising access to intelligent systems. This approach goes beyond simple automation. It builds a digital foundation for governance, communication, and enterprise operations powered by India-first intelligence.
The shift is transforming accessibility across sectors. Earlier, enterprises and public institutions were often limited by imported AI systems that could not process Indian languages effectively. With Sarvam’s full-stack Generative AI platform, Indian developers can now build multilingual conversational agents in 11 Indian languages. They use APIs for essential services like speech-to-text, text-to-speech, translation and language modelling.
This capability empowers the public and private sectors, including governance and citizen-facing services, with options that could be on-prem, on the cloud, or on edge. From a safety stand point, this ensures zero compromise of data. This strategy has accelerated AI adoption across sectors like Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) and governance.
The Sarvam AI model is Sovereign by Design, developed and hosted entirely within the country with complete data control. Their offering includes Modular APIs and Multilingual Foundation Models like Sarvam-M and Sarvam-Translate, which are optimised for low latency and cost. For accessibility, this technology allows for real-time translation and voice-based interfaces, which are vital tools for persons with disabilities navigating digital services. The platform is designed to be Open and Scalable, allowing governments, start-ups and developers to build on the same stack. Ethical considerations are paramount, with full data residency and privacy controls under Indian governance, ethical dataset curation with human oversight, and multilingual inclusivity ensuring equitable access across regions.
Silver Winner: Ridlan AI Foundation
There are lakhs of missing and unidentified people in India, particularly the elderly and disabled, who lose their identity and family connection in old age homes and shelters. The challenge stems from the lack of a centralised repository to effectively reunite them with their families. Ridlan AI Foundation tried to solve for this by building an AI-powered bridge called Milaap Setu. The platform uses facial recognition to help identify and reconnect these missing individuals.
The foundation decided to use AI because traditional manual searches were slow, fragmented and often failed to cope with the workload of identifying lakhs of missing people. AI-driven facial recognition allowed for faster and more accurate identification, even from old or unclear photos. Milaap Setu acts as a bridge, matching faces across databases and shelters, which significantly reduces human effort and improves accuracy, restoring lost identities and reuniting families with dignity and speed.
The impact has been immediate during the pilot launch stage. The pilot achieved a 60 per cent faster identification rate, improved coordination among authorities and successfully helped in reuniting dozens of people with their families. Milaap Setu’s platform is unique for its fast, scalable and user-friendly interface, allowing shelters and authorities to upload photos and basic details through simple forms. Built on cloud infrastructure, the platform is designed to scale nationwide, embodying the use of AI for Good in social welfare by turning data into dignity and reuniting lives with speed, trust, and empathy.
Given the sensitive nature of the data, Ridlan AI Foundation employs rigorous security measures. The system operates with multiple layers of protection, including Encrypted Data Storage for all user data, Private Network Access to prevent data from traversing the public internet, and strict Auth0 Authentication for role-based access control. All business logic resides on secure servers, and the platform is hosted on secure GCP servers in Mumbai, with users retaining control over data sharing, ensuring privacy and consent.
The recognition of Sarvam AI and Ridlan AI Foundation highlights some of the best technological solutions emerging from India to solve complex social problems. These awards celebrate the transformative power of AI in driving societal impact across critical areas.
Note to Readers: All About AI is a Mint editorial initiative, sponsored by Salesforce.
