Health through Artificial Intelligence

AI is transforming Indian healthcare by addressing provider shortages, improving diagnostic speed, and enhancing access to care, with the AI healthcare market projected to grow rapidly. Key applications include early detection for tuberculosis and cancer, AI-enabled tele-consultations, and digital pathology, aimed at bridging rural-urban divides.

Guided by the vision of ‘Welfare for All, Happiness for All’ (Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana Sukhaya), the Union Cabinet launched the IndiaAI mission in March 2024 to advance inclusive development, strengthen governance, and improve public service delivery — including healthcare. The mission embodies two core principles:

• Democratisation of technology, ensuring AI tools reach all segments of society, including rural and underserved populations

• Technology for humanity, deploying AI not merely for technological advancement but to address critical societal challenges, improve quality of life, and advance the public good.

This comprehensive approach aims to transform healthcare delivery as part of India’s journey toward Viksit Bharat by 2047, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says.

The Union Government recognised AI’s transformative potential in healthcare delivery years ago. In 2018, the Niti Aayog published the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, which envisions AI, robotics and the Internet of Medical Things as the “new nervous system for healthcare”, among its myriad applications across various sectors.

AI-powered tools, adopted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s various national programmes, are democratising healthcare expertise across India. For example, these tools enable frontline workers to screen for TB and diabetic retinopathy while supporting 282 million telemedicine consultations nationwide. Together, these efforts have delivered measurable impact, including a 27% reduction in adverse TB outcomes and a 12–16% increase in case detection.

India-AI Impact Summit 2026

India will host the Global South’s first international AI summit in New Delhi from 16 to 20 February, bringing together global leaders, policymakers, technology firms, innovators, and experts. The summit will cover AI-centred policy, research, industry, and public engagement.

AI in Healthcare Delivery

AI has enabled better delivery of various public health initiatives by leveraging technology for public health impact. It demonstrates how technology-driven solutions can address persistent developmental challenges and promote inclusive and holistic social development. This reflects the spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat.

From 2022 to 2025, India has fundamentally restructured its public health delivery by integrating AI into a unified strategy that bridges specialist shortages and scales proactive care. By deploying AI-enabled tools within the National TB Elimination Programme, the National Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Programme, and the Media Disease Surveillance System, the government has empowered non-specialists to perform high-level screenings, resulting in a 27% decline in adverse TB outcomes and over 4,500 outbreak alerts.

This transformation is further solidified through the e-Sanjeevani, which has supported 282 million consultations with AI-assisted differential diagnosis, and the UdyogYantra AI System for malnutrition monitoring. This has created a comprehensive ecosystem spanning infectious disease management and cancer care, the modernisation of traditional Ayurvedic medicine, and the National One Health Programme.

IndiaAI Mission’s Healthcare Initiatives

In March 2024, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the comprehensive national-level IndiaAI mission with a budget outlay of Rs 10,371.92 crore to promote India’s socio-economic development using AI.

The IndiaAI Mission initiatives are supporting innovation in AI-enabled healthcare applications. One of the pillars of the mission is the IndiaAI Application Development Initiative. This scheme aims to develop, scale, and promote the adoption of impactful AI solutions designed to tackle significant national challenges. Advanced and efficient AI-enabled healthcare delivery is one of the many outcomes of this initiative.

India’s AI healthcare transformation has also been made possible due to the existing digital infrastructure in place – the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). There are 799 million digital health IDs already in place (as of August 2025). Over 410,000 registered healthcare facilities and over 670,000 healthcare professionals are registered on the digital repositories. And over 671 million health records have been linked with Ayushman Bharat Health Account.

Under the ABDM, the private sector is being encouraged to use innovative methods to transform healthcare delivery.