India's AI-Driven Healthcare Vision for Viksit Bharat @2047
Union Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare and Chemicals & Fertilizers Smt. Anupriya Patel articulated India's strategic shift from being the 'Pharmacy of the World' to becoming the 'Laboratory of the World' through research, innovation, and emerging technologies. Speaking at the IIMA Healthcare Summit 2026 themed 'Advancing AI in Healthcare', the Minister highlighted India's pharmaceutical industry's pandemic contribution, ensuring uninterrupted supplies of vaccines and essential medical products to over 200 countries, while India's vaccination programme administered over 2.2 billion doses.
The Minister emphasized AI's transformational potential to accelerate drug discovery, enable personalized treatments, and strengthen healthcare delivery through improved screening, clinical decision-making, and disease surveillance. She stressed that AI adoption must be safe, responsible, and human-centered with strong patient privacy safeguards, ensuring technology complements rather than replaces human clinical judgment. The government has established Centres of Excellence for AI in healthcare at AIIMS New Delhi, PGIMER Chandigarh, and AIIMS Rishikesh.
Government Initiatives and Funding Schemes
Two major funding initiatives were highlighted: the ₹5,000 crore Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma-MedTech Sector (PRIP) Scheme aimed at strengthening research and industry-academia collaboration, and the ₹10,000 crore Biopharma SHAKTI mission announced in the Union Budget to strengthen capabilities in biologics and biosimilars, develop skilled manpower, and enhance regulatory and clinical trial capabilities to support the domestic biopharmaceutical ecosystem.
Digital Health Infrastructure and AI Implementation
Shri Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, noted the growing AI adoption in pharmaceutical companies for production, human resource, marketing, distribution, and inventory management, while startups in Bengaluru and Hyderabad are leveraging AI for drug discovery to significantly reduce development time. The government is addressing challenges related to capital access, software licensing, computing capacity, and specialized talent through initiatives including the National Biopharma Mission and IndiaAI Mission, with plans to provide substantial support for eligible startups' software licensing and operational costs.
Smt. Punya Salila Srivastava, Secretary, Department of Health & Family Welfare, detailed the robust digital health ecosystem under Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), which has created an interoperable, open-standards-based system with over 96 crore ABHA IDs and more than 1,000 crore health records digitally linked across healthcare facilities and professionals. AI-enabled applications are being used for early detection of tuberculosis and diabetic retinopathy, while eSanjeevani's AI-enabled clinical decision support has benefited over 20 crore patients. The IndiaAI Mission and AIKosh are democratizing access to datasets, AI models, and toolkits.
Industry Perspective and Archival Initiatives
Shri Pankaj Patel, Chairman of IIMA Board of Governors and Zydus Lifesciences, emphasized AI's transformative potential across the healthcare value chain, from drug discovery to patient care, noting its ability to accelerate drug candidate identification, support clinical trial design, and help researchers identify failures earlier. The event featured the unveiling of India Pharma Archives (https://indiapharmaarchives.com), a digital initiative by the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance in collaboration with IIM Ahmedabad Archives documenting India's pharmaceutical industry evolution through oral histories, archival documents, photographs, and rare media. A book on India's COVID-19 vaccine development was also released, capturing the country's scientific, pharmaceutical, and institutional response to the global health crisis.
The IIMA Healthcare Summit 2026 brought together policymakers, healthcare industry stakeholders, and academia to deliberate on advancing AI in healthcare, aligned with the Government of India's IndiaAI Mission and the vision of a healthy and developed India by 2047.