Maharashtra has turned its sovereign AI plans into a working tool for its own officials. Bengaluru-based Sarvam has signed an Enterprise Agreement with the Government of Maharashtra’s Commissionerate of Electronics, Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence. With the agreement in place, Sarvam’s Indus Cowork platform is now live for 2,500 officials across the state government.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis launched the platform on 28 October at a review meeting of the MahaSarthi portal at Sahyadri Guest House in Mumbai. The state is rolling it out as MahaINDUS, a secure AI platform for administrative work. It was launched alongside new services on MahaDBT 2.0, Aaple Sarkar 2.0 and the MAITRI portal, which eGov reported earlier.
An AI desk for everyday government work
Sarvam describes Indus Cowork as a secure AI productivity desk. Officials can use it to draft documents, analyse reports and summarise files. According to Sarvam, they can also research policies and precedents, prepare first drafts of notes and replies, translate long scheme and policy documents, analyse data, and convert scanned records into searchable text. The workspace supports 22 languages, including Marathi.
The state has added three purpose-built tools:
- GR Expert searches Government Resolutions (GRs) across departments. It helps officials find the latest rules and check which earlier resolutions have been replaced.
- Email Summariser condenses official correspondence.
- RFP Bid Evaluator helps officials compare and assess tender bids.
GR search answers a familiar problem in state administration. Finding a resolution is only the first step. An official also needs to know whether it is still in force or has been superseded by a later order.
Sovereign by design
Data residency is central to the deployment. Sarvam says Indus runs on secure, audited infrastructure located entirely within India. Government data stays in the country, on systems the state can inspect. The state government said safeguards are in place so that official data does not leave the country and is not used to train AI models.
Fadnavis said Maharashtra was the first state in the country to use sovereign AI in this way. He added that AI, integrated databases and digital systems would help officials search large collections of GRs, manage correspondence and simplify routine office work. He also told departments that launching platforms was not enough. They must use them actively, so that shortcomings surface early and can be fixed.
A two-year, ₹11.26 crore package
According to Analytics India Magazine, the Maharashtra government approved the deployment of Sarvam’s sovereign AI solutions in August with a two-year outlay of ₹11.26 crore. Besides Indus Cowork for employees, the package includes:
- Samvaad, a voice- and WhatsApp-based system for citizen outreach.
- Integration of Sarvam’s Saaras speech-recognition and Bulbul text-to-speech models with the state’s MahaAI platform.
Sarvam first announced its partnership with the state in August. It said it planned to bring Indus into the daily work of around 2,500 officials across departments. The enterprise agreement now moves that plan into operational use.
Why it matters
Several states are trying generative AI for citizen-facing services. Maharashtra’s deployment is aimed at the internal machinery of government instead: drafting, reading resolutions, handling correspondence and evaluating tenders, with data residency built in. Sarvam says Maharashtra is one of India’s first states to bring AI into its administration at this scale. The next test will be adoption: how widely the 2,500 officials use these tools, and how accurately they track rules as resolutions change.
Featured image: Mantralaya, Mumbai. Photo: Pinakpani / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.