Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava highlighted India's digital health infrastructure at a New York discussion on artificial intelligence and the Global South, according to Akashvani's September 22, 2026 report. She identified Aadhaar, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission and ABHA health accounts as foundations for expanding digital healthcare and exchanging records between systems.
At the session, titled Grounding the Frontier: A Global South AI Framework, Srivastava said AI models needed data that represented the populations they were intended to serve. She cited clinical decision support, health records covering a patient's history over time and identification of disease hotspots as areas of use. She also referred to the Strategy for AI in Healthcare, or SAHI, as a framework for responsible adoption.
A separate domestic announcement three days later supplied concrete details of the government's health-data programme. At Arogya Manthan on September 25, Health Minister J.P. Nadda launched initiatives including the National Healthcare Providers Registry mobile app, an implementation guide for payers using the National Health Claims Exchange and a guidebook for a model digital health facility.
The same event introduced a Secure Data Environment developed by the National Health Authority with support from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. The ministry described access for approved entities to de-identified data, or permission to run code inside an isolated NHA environment. Outputs would be reviewed before release. The arrangement was presented as supporting research, programme planning, outcome analysis and responsible AI innovation.
A framework for automated adjudication of AB PM-JAY claims was also launched. NHA chief Sunil Kumar Barnwal described it as a way to strengthen claims processing through technology and data. The September 25 announcements therefore named separate instruments for data access, provider registration and insurance administration, following the secretary's earlier presentation of India's broader digital-health approach in New York.
