India Set to Launch SAHI and BODH to Govern AI in Healthcare

India is preparing to put guardrails around Artificial Intelligence in healthcare. At the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, the Union Health Minister is scheduled to launch two national initiatives aimed at governing and testing how AI enters the public health system.

Here’s what they mean.

What is being launched?

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda is set to launch two national initiatives at the India AI Impact Summit: the Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare for India (SAHI) and the Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI (BODH).

What is SAHI?

SAHI is a national guidance framework designed to enable the safe, ethical, evidence-based and inclusive adoption of Artificial Intelligence across India’s healthcare system.

It aims to provide strategic direction on governance, data stewardship, validation, deployment and monitoring of AI solutions, while helping States and institutions adopt AI in alignment with public health priorities.

Why is SAHI significant?

As AI tools increasingly enter diagnostics, hospital workflows and public health systems, the absence of clear governance frameworks can raise concerns around safety, accountability and data protection.

SAHI seeks to create a structured policy backbone so AI solutions are responsibly deployed and systematically monitored within the healthcare ecosystem.

What is BODH?

BODH is a privacy-preserving benchmarking platform developed by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in collaboration with the National Health Authority.

It enables rigorous evaluation of AI models using diverse, real-world health data without sharing the underlying datasets.

How does BODH work in practice?

Instead of moving sensitive patient data across institutions, BODH allows AI models to be tested in a controlled, privacy-protecting environment.

This enables transparent performance assessment while safeguarding underlying datasets, strengthening trust and quality assurance in Health AI deployment.

How do SAHI and BODH fit together?

SAHI sets the governance and policy framework for AI adoption in healthcare. BODH provides the technical infrastructure to evaluate AI models before or during deployment.

Together, they are positioned as complementary pillars in building a responsible and globally competitive health AI ecosystem under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.

What is the broader context of the launch?

The initiatives are being introduced at the India AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam, described as the first global AI gathering to be hosted in the Global South.

The summit has drawn participation from over 20 Heads of State, 60 Ministers and 500 global AI leaders, with more than 600 startups and over 300 exhibition pavilions. The Prime Minister is scheduled to deliver the inaugural address on February 19.

(With inputs from ANI)