Bharat Digital

Bharat Digital works with governments, nonprofits and community organisations to make government technology more modern and humane. It was co-founded by Harsh Nisar and Richa Marwah, who both entered government technology through roles that had not existed before them: Harsh joined the Ministry of Rural Development as a data scientist in 2016, and Richa joined as a product manager in 2020. The organisation describes its work as a decade-long mission to reimagine how governments use technology in service of the public, built around supporting public technologists, engineers, designers and researchers working inside government.

Areas of Work

• Digital Government and Public Technology: builds and improves technology systems used by government departments and public institutions.
• Engineering and Product Modernisation: upgrades government engineering practices, including AI-assisted development, version control and CI/CD.
• Technology Procurement and Policy: advises government teams on project scoping, vendor evaluation and technology decisions.
• Workforce and Leadership for Government Tech: supports hiring, HR practices and leadership development for public officers managing technology projects.

Initiatives and Programmes

• Build for Bharat Fellowship: a six-month paid fellowship placing early-career technologists inside government departments, across Design, Artificial Intelligence and Engineering tracks. Fellows receive a stipend of 40,000 rupees a month and are placed by Bharat Digital based on track and departmental need. Past cohorts have been based in Delhi, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai.
• Fellows in Residence: interdisciplinary teams of 2 to 4 early-career technologists embedded in government departments for six months, with stipends paid by Bharat Digital.
• Information Systems Audit: two-week assessments of live government technology systems, from code to last-mile users.
• Engineering Modernisation Sprints: 30-day sprints pairing government engineering teams with senior technologists from major Indian technology companies.
• Labs: experimental public technology projects, including the eSankhyiki MCP Server built with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, described as the first Indian government MCP server connecting AI agents to official statistical data.

Impact

More than 80 percent of the 2026 Build for Bharat Fellowship cohort now work in government or the wider public technology sector, and most fellows ship changes to government systems within their first month. Bharat Digital has worked with departments including the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Karnataka’s Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department, the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority and the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency, on projects such as a WhatsApp tool for Gram Panchayat librarians, a public transit data portal for Chennai, and the redesign of Tamil Nadu’s e-Sevai citizen services portal.

Leadership

• Harsh Nisar, Co-Founder
• Richa Marwah, Co-Founder
• Prakriti Bakshi, Storytelling and Research Lead

Partners

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department (Government of Karnataka), Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority, Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency, Centre for Smart Governance (Karnataka), ARTPARK (IISc), National Highways Authority of India, Indian Highways Management Company, Adalat AI, Indus Action

Bharat Digital suits people who want their work to directly affect public systems used by millions of Indians, rather than working one step removed through private sector products. Fellows and team members work inside real government departments, alongside existing staff, on live codebases and real citizen services. The organisation is small and close-knit, offering early exposure to government technology work, mentorship from senior public technologists, and a clear path into government or public technology careers afterward.