New Delhi: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda launched two major digital health initiatives, SAHI and BODH, at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.
The launch of these initiatives marks a new phase in India’s push to integrate artificial intelligence into the healthcare sector.
The twin initiatives aim to ensure that AI tools in healthcare are safe, ethical, transparent, and grounded in evidence before they are deployed at scale.
SAHI: A Governance Framework for Health AI
Unveiling SAHI, the Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare for India, Nadda described it as more than a technology roadmap. He called it a governance framework and policy guide for the responsible use of AI in the health sector.
According to the minister, SAHI will help India adopt AI in a way that is ethical, accountable, and people-centric. The framework is designed to balance innovation with public interest. It sets clear standards for safety, efficacy, and ethical compliance before AI tools are introduced widely.
SAHI also promotes collaboration between healthcare institutions, technology developers, researchers, and policymakers. It will function as a knowledge-sharing and governance hub, encouraging best practices in AI development. Strong safeguards for patient data protection and algorithmic accountability form a core part of the framework.
BODH: Benchmarking Before Deployment
Alongside SAHI, the government introduced BODH, the Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI. The platform has been developed by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in collaboration with the National Health Authority.
BODH will provide a structured mechanism to test and validate AI solutions before they are rolled out at a population level. It will use diverse, anonymized real-world health datasets to evaluate AI models for performance, robustness, bias, and generalizability.
Together, SAHI and BODH signal India’s commitment to building a trustworthy and globally competitive health AI ecosystem, rooted in innovation, responsibility, and public trust.
