India’s rapid progress in artificial intelligence has underscored the need for systems that are safe, transparent and trustworthy. As AI capabilities accelerate, building governance tools that reflect India’s unique socio technical landscape has become a national priority. Responding to this imperative, IndiaAI launched the second phase of its Expression of Interest under the Safe and Trusted AI pillar on December 10, 2024.

More than four hundred proposals arrived from leading academic institutions, start ups, research organisations and civil society groups, signalling strong national momentum for responsible AI development. A multi stakeholder committee with deep technical expertise was convened to review submissions across key themes. Following a rigorous evaluation process, five projects have been selected to translate Safe and Trusted AI into practice, ranging from deepfake detection and forensic analysis to bias auditing and generative AI security testing.

Projects Selected Under the Second EoI of the Safe and Trusted AI Pillar

Deepfake Detection Tools

Saakshya
Multi Agent RAG Enhanced Framework for Deepfake Detection and Governance
Selected Applicant: IIT Jodhpur and IIT Madras

AI Vishleshak
Improving Audio Visual Deepfake Detection and Handwritten Signature Forgery Detection with Adversarial Robustness, Explainability and Domain Generalisation
Selected Applicant: IIT Mandi and Directorate of Forensic Services, Himachal Pradesh

Real Time Voice Deepfake Detection System
Selected Applicant: IIT Kharagpur

Bias Mitigation

Evaluating Gender Bias in Agriculture LLMs
Creating Digital Public Goods for Benchmarking and Fair Data Work
Selected Applicant: Digital Futures Lab and Karya

Penetration Testing and Evaluation

Anvil
Penetration Testing and Evaluation Tool for LLM and Generative AI
Selected Applicant: Globals ITES Pvt Ltd and IIIT Dharwad

These five projects illustrate IndiaAI’s commitment to converting policy ambition into real world capability. Together, they advance real time deepfake detection for video and audio, strengthen forensic investigations, create public good datasets to tackle gender bias and provide advanced penetration testing tools for generative AI models.

By bringing together the country’s academic strength, industry expertise and civil society insight, the IndiaAI Mission continues to nurture an ethical and resilient AI ecosystem that supports India’s diverse communities and economic ambitions. These initiatives represent another confident step towards making Safe and Trusted AI a foundational pillar of India’s digital future.