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India Unveils SAHI and BODH to Drive Responsible AI in Healthcare at Global Summit

New Delhi launches national AI strategy and benchmark platform to strengthen health AI ecosystem

• By PharmaNews Live Desk
• New Delhi
• Feb 18, 2026

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In a major push to integrate artificial intelligence responsibly into health systems, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda on Tuesday, 17 February, launched two flagship initiatives — SAHI and BODH — at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi. These initiatives are aimed at guiding ethical AI deployment and establishing rigorous benchmarking standards for AI tools in healthcare.

Strategic Launch at Global AI Summit

At the multi-day India AI Impact Summit 2026, held at Bharat Mandapam, Mr. Nadda unveiled SAHI (Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare for India) and BODH (Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI), describing the innovations as cornerstones for shaping a trustworthy health AI ecosystem in the country.

SAHI is designed as a national governance framework and roadmap to ensure that AI technologies in healthcare are developed, validated, deployed and monitored responsibly, with a focus on ethics, transparency and people-centric values.

Explaining the initiative’s significance, Mr. Nadda said, “SAHI is not merely a technology strategy. It is a governance framework and a national roadmap for the responsible use of AI in healthcare. AI must assist doctors and health workers, not replace them. It must be ethical, transparent, accountable and people-centric.”

Benchmarking and Trust Through BODH

Alongside SAHI, the minister introduced BODH, a platform developed in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and the National Health Authority. The benchmarking platform is intended to evaluate and validate AI models using diverse, anonymized real-world health data before deployment on a population scale, while preserving data privacy.

Officials highlighted that BODH will assess AI systems based on performance, robustness, bias and generalizability — strengthening trust and accountability in AI solutions used by clinicians and public health programmes.

Vision Rooted in Digital Health Architecture

The launch builds on India’s decade-long digital health journey, beginning with the Digital India programme launched in 2015 and followed by the National Health Policy 2017 which envisioned an interoperable and scalable digital health ecosystem. Later, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) provided robust digital public infrastructure to support expansive health data systems.

Mr. Nadda noted that “AI does not operate in isolation. It depends on strong digital systems and high-quality data,” emphasizing that consent-based health data frameworks are being developed to empower citizens while safeguarding privacy and security.

Expert Praise and Future Prospects

Addressing the summit, Dr. Catharina Boehme, Officer-in-Charge of the World Health Organization South-East Asia Regional Office, lauded India’s efforts, stating that it is among the first countries to adopt a national AI strategy for health. “Innovation must strengthen systems, expand access and build trust,” she said, highlighting the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach embedded in SAHI.

Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava underscored that SAHI represents a long-term policy commitment and provides a common framework for governments and private partners to guide AI evaluation, adoption and integration. She stressed that “trust, safety and accountability must remain central to India’s health AI journey,” and that BODH’s validation mechanisms will be critical in real-world clinical use.

Scaling Responsible Health AI

Together, SAHI and BODH are poised to make India’s healthcare AI landscape more ethical, reliable and globally competitive. They are expected to facilitate collaboration among healthcare institutions, technology developers, researchers and policymakers, while reinforcing safeguards for patient data and algorithmic accountability before AI systems are deployed at scale.

The summit, which brings together global AI leaders, policymakers and innovators, positions India as a forward-looking leader in leveraging AI for health and other development outcomes.