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Project collection · Ongoing

Project BoLI

Reclaiming Data Sovereignty. Revolutionising AI Development for 1,000+ Indian Languages

Project BoLI, the flagship initiative of UnReaL-TecE LLP, is building high-quality datasets to train and benchmark next-generation AI tasks—from speech-to-text to advanced grammatical reasoning—across more than 1,000 underserved Indian languages and dialects. We are pioneering a globally unique data governance framework where all released datasets, derivative assets, and downstream models are permanently co-owned by the contributing communities. Under our groundbreaking BoLI License, commercial data usage is strictly treated as a revocable license rather than a transfer of ownership, ensuring total accountability in the era of LLMs.

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268.3
Hours
64
Languages
315163
Entries
170
Speakers
Project networkLeadership, partners and funders
Ritesh Kumar Project DirectorRitesh Kumar
Principle InvestigatorShyam Ratan
R Karthick Narayanan Principle InvestigatorR Karthick Narayanan Unreal Tece LLP Lead OrganisationUnreal Tece LLP Council for Diversity and Innovation Co-lead OrganisationCouncil for Diversity and Innovation
385 records

Leadership / Principal & Chief Investigators

3

Ritesh Kumar

Project Director · Unreal Tece LLP

Ritesh is a linguist whose research intersects pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and AI systems for social good. He computationally models politeness, impoliteness, and language aggression, and develops safety benchmarks evaluating the harm potential and cultural appropriateness of LLM responses. He has built language resources and technologies for minoritised and endangered languages like Awadhi, Beda, Braj Bhasha, Magahi, Toto, and Chokri, alongside supporting tools like the LiFE Suite for humanities and social sciences research. Currently, he is serving as the CEO of the AI startup Unreal Tece LLP, focusing on data and models for the last million. Additionally, he is the co-founder and director of the Council for Diversity and Innovation, a non-profit Section 8 company that trains indigenous communities and works with stakeholders on linguistic and cultural documentation, digitisation, lexicon development, grammar writing, and language technologies.

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R Karthick Narayanan

Principle Investigator · Council for Diversity and Innovation

Dr. R. Karthick Narayanan is a linguist, digital archivist, and digital humanities specialist based in Chennai. He currently serves as the Executive Director and Co-founder of the Council for Diversity and Innovation (CoDIN) and as was previously the Chief Community and Data Officer at UnReal TecE LLP. His work sits at the intersection of language, technology, and cultural preservation. He focuses on translational research and the infrastructure-documentation bridge, specifically applying AI and language technologies for social good. A core pillar of his work is the documentation and digital archiving of under-represented and indigenous languages in South Asia. Guided by the principles of epistemic justice and community-centered archiving—rooted in Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, and Responsibility—he has been instrumental in public initiatives like the Tholkudi Digital Repository. Beyond linguistics, his archival work extends into ethnomusicology, notably through the Suvadugal project, which involves the extensive documentation of traditional folk musical instruments and their acoustic identities. As an accomplished scholar and writer, he co-authored the book Marum Ulagil Maraya Oligal (Sahitya Akademi), a work that earned him the SPARROW–R. Thyagarajan Literary Award.

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Research team

22

Siddhi Gattani

Research Assistant

LanguagesAngika, Bajjika, Mising

ProjectsIn-progress project, In-progress project, In-progress project, In-progress project, In-progress project

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Community contributors

243