The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry hosted a high-level panel discussion today on the theme "Scaling AI for Public Health Impact: Public-Private Partnership" during the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion, Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava recalled that the National Health Policy set the vision of achieving the highest attainable standard of health and well-being for all citizens. She highlighted that the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission has evolved into a robust digital public infrastructure for health, with over 859 million ABHA accounts linked to more than 878 million health records.
Mrs. Srivastava said that with over 1.8 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs operational across the country, digital platforms are being integrated at the primary care level. She highlighted that e-Sanjeevani, powered by AI-assisted Clinical Decision Support Systems, has enabled over 449 million teleconsultations through more than 2.2 lakh registered healthcare providers, making it the world's largest telemedicine initiative in primary healthcare.
Addressing the gathering, CEO of the National Health Authority, Dr. Sunil Kumar Barnwal stated that Artificial Intelligence can significantly enhance efficiency in healthcare delivery and enable faster, data-driven decision-making, particularly in large-scale public health programmes. He emphasised that AI-powered analytics can strengthen beneficiary identification, streamline claims management, detect fraud, and monitor service utilisation, thereby improving transparency, accountability, and overall system performance.
