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BharatGen AI, Ather and Infineon, China’s rare earth India impact, and MFV’s new pre-seed fund
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In today’s headlines, What’s Bharat Gen LLM, Ather and Infineon team up, China’s rare earth impact on EVs, and an innovative deep tech fund from MFV Partners. So, let’s get started.
India launches Bharat Gen, first government-funded multimodal AI language model for Indian languages
Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh launched Bharat Gen, India’s first indigenously developed, government-funded, AI-based multimodal large language model (LLM) for Indian languages at the BharatGen Summit, according to a statement yesterday by the ministry of science and technology.
Developed under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems and led by IIT Bombay, BharatGen integrates text, speech, and image processing in 22 Indian languages to provide region-specific AI solutions across sectors like healthcare, education, and governance.
Supported by a consortium of academic and industry leaders, BharatGen aims to make AI ethical, inclusive, and rooted in Indian values, empowering innovation and citizen engagement nationwide.
Ather Energy and Infineon partner to boost India’s electric two-wheeler innovation with advanced semiconductors
Ather Energy and Infineon Technologies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop advanced semiconductor technologies for India’s electric two-wheeler market, the two companies said in a press release recently.
The partnership aims to enhance the efficiency, safety, and reliability of light electric vehicles (LEVs) and charging infrastructure using Infineon’s microcontrollers, sensors, and SiC/GaN (Silicon Carbide / Gallium Nitride) technologies, combined with Ather’s design expertise.
Executive Director and CTO Swapnil Jain says this collaboration helps Ather contribute to the EV ecosystem as well, as India seeks to hit 30 percent of auto sales with EVs by 2030. Ather and Infineon will work to make its electric scooters more energy-efficient, cost-effective, and appealing to consumers, while also exploring new innovations in sensing and safety systems.
China’s rare earth export curbs could threaten India’s booming electric two-wheeler market
Meanwhile, India’s electric two-wheeler sales have surged by a third, NDTV Profit reports, but the industry faces a looming shortage of rare earth metals as China has imposed strict export restrictions, requiring special licenses and slowing supply to automakers.
China, which controls about 90 percent of global rare earth processing, has not granted export licenses to Indian companies, raising concerns that production could halt if the situation persists.
Despite the sales boom, the sector’s growth in India is threatened by these supply chain disruptions, as rare earth metals are critical for manufacturing electric vehicle motors and batteries.
MFV Partners launches $25M deep tech fund with University of Chicago, holds lessons for India's startup ecosystem
In some deep tech VC funding news, MFV Partners has launched Harper Court Ventures Fund I, a $25 million fund in exclusive partnership with the University of Chicago, to invest in pre-seed deep tech startups from the university’s ecosystem, focusing on quantum computing, life sciences, energy, and AI.
The fund has already invested in Flow Medical, SimCare AI, and Beacon. MFV’s portfolio company Conifer emerged from stealth, and MFV participated in new funding rounds for Chef Robotics, Irrigreen, and ReScale.
Karthee Madasamy, founding managing partner of MFV Partners, has played an important role in India’s startup ecosystem, notably by establishing Qualcomm Ventures’ India operations in 2008 and leading early investments in companies such as MapMyIndia, Apalya, Kirusa, and Tessolve.
During his 11-year tenure as managing director at Qualcomm Ventures, he was instrumental in supporting Indian deep tech and mobile technology startups, and he continues to back Indian innovators through MFV Partners, including investments in Ati Motors, an autonomous mobile robots (AMR) company in Bangalore.
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