ONDC Launches Saarthi Reference App for Businesses to Create Multilingual Buyer Apps - The Hindu

Context:
Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) launched Saarthi, a reference application designed to assist businesses in creating their own customised buyer-side apps, co-developed with Bhashini.

Saarthi App

• About: A reference application designed to assist businesses in creating their own customised buyer-side apps, supporting network participants in building buyer apps with multilingual features.
• Languages Supported: Hindi, English, Marathi, Bangla, and Tamil, with plans to scale up to all 22 languages provided by Bhashini.
• Features: Real-time translation, transliteration, and voice recognition allow businesses to expand market reach, enabling companies to tap into new regions and increase customer acquisition.

Bhashini

• About: India's AI-led language translation platform that seeks to enable easy access to the internet and digital services in Indian languages, including voice-based access, and help create content in Indian languages.
• Aim: To make AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) resources available in the public domain for use by Indian MSMEs, startups, and individual innovators.
• Significance: It will help developers offer all Indians easy access to the internet and digital services in their native languages.
• Separate ‘Bhasadaan’ Section: Allows individuals to contribute to multiple crowdsourcing initiatives, accessible via respective Android and iOS apps.