IndiaAI, ICMR join hands to build national AI Healthcare ecosystem; focus on compute access, biomedical datasets

The Government of India’s flagship artificial intelligence initiative, IndiaAI, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to strengthen the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare and biomedical research.

The collaboration, announced by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), seeks to create a scalable and interoperable AI ecosystem for healthcare by combining IndiaAI’s technology infrastructure with ICMR’s expertise in biomedical and public health research. The partnership is expected to support the development of AI-led healthcare solutions while ensuring adherence to ethical standards, data privacy and regulatory frameworks.

Expanding access to biomedical AI datasets

As part of the agreement, ICMR will contribute anonymised and ethics-approved datasets, AI models and research toolkits developed under its Medical Information Data for AI Solutions (MIDAS) programme to IndiaAI’s AIKosh platform.

The move is expected to improve access to high-quality biomedical datasets for startups, researchers and innovators working on healthcare-focused AI applications. Officials said the initiative could help reduce fragmentation in healthcare data access and promote collaborative innovation across the ecosystem.

The AIKosh platform is being positioned as a national repository for datasets and AI assets that can support the development of indigenous AI models and solutions.

GPU infrastructure to support advanced research

Under the collaboration, IndiaAI will also provide ICMR access to GPU-based and high-performance computing infrastructure at subsidised rates under defined service-level agreements.

The provision of compute infrastructure is expected to address a major bottleneck faced by healthcare researchers and institutions working on advanced AI models, particularly in areas such as disease prediction, diagnostics and medical imaging.

The partnership will further support the joint development of AI-driven use cases aimed at addressing India’s public health challenges. These applications will draw on ICMR’s disease burden data and IndiaAI’s computing and AI ecosystem capabilities.

Building on global HealthAI engagement

The agreement builds on earlier collaboration between the two organisations. In September 2025, IndiaAI and ICMR’s National Institute for Research in Digital Health and Data Sciences (NIRDHDS) were recognised as Pioneer Countries under the HealthAI Global Regulatory Network, a multilateral initiative co-founded with the UK and Singapore.

A subsequent tripartite agreement involving IndiaAI, ICMR and HealthAI further expanded cooperation on responsible AI governance in healthcare.