Smita Gupta & Jugalbandi (India) 

Who Built It

Smita Gupta is a legal technologist and human rights advocate who co-leads the ⁠OpenNyAI (Open AI for Justice) initiative in India. She is a core figure behind Jugalbandi, a multilingual, voice-enabled AI platform built to help rural and marginalized communities access government services.

1.4B

People in India the majority unable to access services in English

11%

Speak English, which is also the language of government programs, legal documents, and official services

89%

Of welfare schemes were inaccessible to the people they were designed to help.

Spoken or typed in any Indian language, retrieves information from government databases in English, and responds back in the user’s language by voice.

Covers 10 official Indian languages

171 government programs.

Farmers

Domestic workers

Rural residents

Students seeking scholarships

Anyone who cannot access government services because of the language barrier.

Why It Belongs Here

Accessible through the tool 1.4 billion people already use: WhatsApp

• Requires no new download, no technical skill, no literacy in the language of government.

• A lawyer built the access layer using AI for an underserved community.