IndicDB -- Benchmarking Multilingual Text-to-SQL Capabilities in Indian Languages

arXiv cs.CL / 4/16/2026

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Key Points

  • IndicDB is introduced as a new multilingual Text-to-SQL benchmark targeting real-world Indian-language settings where prior benchmarks mainly covered Western contexts and simplified schemas.
  • The benchmark uses realistic relational database schemas sourced from open government/administrative data platforms (NDAP, IDP) and includes 20 databases with 237 tables, featuring complex join structures (up to six join depth).
  • An iterative three-agent pipeline (Architect, Auditor, Refiner) is used to convert denormalized data into richly structured schemas while enforcing join validity and calibrating task difficulty.
  • IndicDB generates 15,617 value-aware tasks across English, Hindi, and five Indic languages, and evaluates multiple state-of-the-art models for cross-lingual semantic parsing.
  • Results reveal an “Indic Gap,” with a 9.00% performance drop from English to Indic languages attributed to harder schema linking, greater structural ambiguity, and limited external knowledge.

Abstract

While Large Language Models (LLMs) have significantly advanced Text-to-SQL performance, existing benchmarks predominantly focus on Western contexts and simplified schemas, leaving a gap in real-world, non-Western applications. We present IndicDB, a multilingual Text-to-SQL benchmark for evaluating cross-lingual semantic parsing across diverse Indic languages. The relational schemas are sourced from open-data platforms, including the National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP) and the India Data Portal (IDP), ensuring realistic administrative data complexity. IndicDB comprises 20 databases across 237 tables. To convert denormalized government data into rich relational structures, we employ an iterative three-agent framework (Architect, Auditor, Refiner) to ensure structural rigor and high relational density (11.85 tables per database; join depths up to six). Our pipeline is value-aware, difficulty-calibrated, and join-enforced, generating 15,617 tasks across English, Hindi, and five Indic languages. We evaluate cross-lingual semantic parsing performance of state-of-the-art models (DeepSeek v3.2, MiniMax 2.7, LLaMA 3.3, Qwen3) across seven linguistic variants. Results show a 9.00% performance drop from English to Indic languages, revealing an "Indic Gap" driven by harder schema linking, increased structural ambiguity, and limited external knowledge. IndicDB serves as a rigorous benchmark for multilingual Text-to-SQL. Code and data: https://anonymous.4open.science/r/multilingualText2Sql-Indic--DDCC/