Ministry Of Defence Partners With Sarvam To Drive AI Adoption For Armed Forces

Sarvam has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to advance AI adoption across Indian armed forces — Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force. “HQ Integrated Defence Staff and Sarvam AI have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on AI applications, research, knowledge management, training and decision-support across the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force,” the ministry said in a post on social media. While the MoU marks Sarvam’s maiden push into defence, it comes at a time when the Central government’s focus on homegrown defencetech has picked up significantly. India is also looking to expand the use of indigenous AI capabilities across critical sectors. The partnership is expected to support the development of AI-based solutions tailored to the requirements of the armed forces, although specific applications, deployment timelines and financial details of the partnership haven’t been disclosed. At its inaugural developer conference in August, Sarvam Epoch, the startup outlined ambitions across the AI ecosystem. Its plans span across AI models, compute infrastructure, coding agents, voice technology, document intelligence and workplace applications, alongside hardware such as smart glasses. The startup is betting that the Indian ecosystem will seek AI solutions which are more competitively priced, ensure data sovereignty and can deliver stronger performances. Its India-hosted infrastructure and language capabilities potentially give it an advantage in government, defence and regulated sectors. Its Anvaya platform targets defence and intelligence applications, including on-premise deployments. Meanwhile, AI is expected to drive significant growth in India's defence tech market. As per Inc42’s India’s Defence Tech Startup Ecosystem Report 2025, India’s defence tech market is projected to grow from $7.6 Bn in 2025 to $19 Bn by 2030, at a CAGR of 20%, with advanced technologies like AI expected to account for 48% of the market by 2030, up from 28% in 2025. AI adoption is expanding, with 89% of Indian defence tech startups reporting its integration into their offerings. As demand grows for autonomous systems, AI-powered surveillance and advanced communications, indigenous innovation could become central to India's defence modernisation. The challenge is to translate growing investment and adoption into sophisticated, reliable systems that strengthen technological self-reliance.

Source: Inc42 (India)