The India AI Mission today launched Varya, a distilled video model built to make frontier video AI affordable, accessible and relevant. Addressing the launch event in New Delhi, Secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology S. Krishnan said that the launch of one of the foundational models supported under the IndiaAI Mission marks a significant milestone in India’s AI journey. He said that Varya represents the kind of research-led capability building that reflects the government’s commitment to developing indigenous AI capabilities and fostering a vibrant deep-tech ecosystem. Mr Krishnan said that through strategic support for foundational models, the government is enabling innovation at scale and creating the building blocks for the next generation of AI solutions.
Electronics and IT Ministry informed that Varya is developed by an AI-native transformation company, Avtaar with support from the IndiaAI Mission. Varya uses a distillation technique that reduces video generation from 50 steps to 4 steps, while maintaining comparable output quality, making it upto 10 times more cost-efficient than several leading global video models. The ministry noted that the model has been built to understand and generate culturally rich visual outputs across India’s regions, festivals, communities, food, clothing, public spaces and everyday life.
