The National Health Authority (NHA) is in the final stretch of turning India’s Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (SAHI) into a working plan. NHA Chief Executive Officer Dr Sunil Kumar Barnwal chaired the fourth committee meeting on the SAHI Implementation Roadmap on 2 November 2026, where officials worked on finalising the draft roadmap.

According to the NHA, the meeting brought together officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, state governments, regulatory bodies, academia and healthcare AI stakeholders. The discussions focused on three tasks: moving inter-ministerial consultations forward, folding in what was heard at the regional consultations, and closing the draft implementation roadmap.

What the SAHI implementation roadmap is meant to do

SAHI was launched by Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda in February 2026, together with the Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI (BODH), built by IIT Kanpur with the NHA. The strategy sets out 32 recommendations across five pillars, but on its own it is a recommendatory framework. The roadmap is the step that decides who does what, by when and with what resources.

The five SAHI pillars are:

• Governance, regulation and trust
• Health data and digital infrastructure
• Workforce, institutional capacity and change management
• Research, innovation and evidence generation
• Ecosystem enablement and global leadership

The NHA said the roadmap will translate SAHI’s strategic vision into actionable priorities and guide the responsible, ethical and inclusive adoption of AI across India’s healthcare system. The same strategy and BODH were also part of the agenda when the NHA explored digital health collaboration with the UAE last week.

How the roadmap has been built

The fourth meeting follows a series of consultations led by Dr Barnwal over the past months. At an inter-ministerial consultation, agencies named as lead or supporting agencies reviewed their assigned action points and flagged concerns about scope, feasibility and capacity. Dr Barnwal said then that a lead agency must be ready to build capacity, mobilise resources, coordinate with supporting agencies and own delivery of its tasks.

Regional consultations followed, including an eastern meeting in Bhubaneswar with 11 eastern and north-eastern states and a northern meeting in New Delhi with eight states and institutions such as AIIMS New Delhi, CDSCO, the National Medical Commission and ICMR’s digital health research institute. That round produced agency-specific recommendations with timelines, indicative resource needs and cross-pillar dependencies.

Why it matters for hospitals and health AI startups

Hospitals and healthtech companies are already deploying AI in diagnostics, triage and clinical documentation, often ahead of clear rules on validation, liability and data use. A roadmap with named owners and timelines would give them a firmer idea of what standards they will be measured against, from risk-based classification of AI tools to post-deployment monitoring. The question of trust in clinical AI has been raised repeatedly, including in our recent analysis on why healthcare AI has trust issues and how India could change that.

The roadmap also depends on the digital rails the NHA runs under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). Those rails are changing too: citizens are being moved from the ABHA app to Aarogya Setu 2.0, as covered in our report on the ABHA app being discontinued. Public platforms are also adding AI at scale, with eSanjeevani crossing 50 crore teleconsultations and using an AI-powered clinical decision support system.

The NHA has not yet announced a date for releasing the final roadmap.

Key takeaways

• NHA CEO Dr Sunil Kumar Barnwal chaired the fourth SAHI Implementation Roadmap committee meeting on 2 November 2026.
• The meeting worked on finalising the draft roadmap using inputs from inter-ministerial and regional consultations.
• The roadmap assigns SAHI’s 32 recommendations to lead and supporting agencies with timelines and resource needs.

FAQ

What is SAHI?

SAHI, the Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare for India, is a national framework launched in February 2026 to guide the safe, ethical and evidence-based use of AI in India’s health system, with 32 recommendations across five pillars.

Who is preparing the SAHI implementation roadmap?

The National Health Authority is leading the work under CEO Dr Sunil Kumar Barnwal, with the Health Ministry, states, regulators, academia and industry stakeholders.

Source: National Health Authority, 2 November 2026. Read the full SAHI strategy document and the PIB release on the SAHI and BODH launch.

Featured image: NHA CEO Dr Sunil Kumar Barnwal at the fourth SAHI roadmap committee meeting. Photo: National Health Authority

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