SAHI & BODH: Building a Responsible AI Ecosystem for India’s Healthcare Transformation

Why in the News ?

The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare is set to launch two major national initiatives — SAHI and BODH — at the India AI Summit held at Bharat Mandapam. These initiatives aim to institutionalise ethical governance, transparency, and accountability in the deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across India’s healthcare ecosystem.

Background and Digital Health Context

India’s healthcare sector is undergoing rapid digitisation under flagship programmes such as the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.

The increasing use of AI in diagnostics, imaging, drug discovery, disease surveillance, and hospital management has raised critical concerns regarding:

• Data privacy
• Algorithmic bias
• Clinical validation
• Regulatory oversight
• Public trust

To address these challenges, the government has introduced structured frameworks to guide responsible AI integration in public health systems.

About SAHI (Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare for India)

SAHI is a national guidance framework aimed at ensuring the safe, ethical, and evidence-based adoption of AI technologies in healthcare.

Key Objectives:

• Establish governance standards for Health AI
• Promote data stewardship and security
• Ensure algorithm validation before deployment
• Align AI tools with public health priorities
• Support States and institutions in responsible implementation

Core Components:

• Governance Framework
  
• Ethical AI Guidelines
  
• Data Protection and Stewardship
  
• Clinical Validation Protocols
  
• Monitoring & Post-Deployment Oversight

SAHI acts as a policy roadmap rather than a regulatory statute, providing strategic direction for national and state-level implementation.

About BODH (Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI)

BODH is a privacy-preserving benchmarking platform developed by:

• Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
• In collaboration with the National Health Authority

Core Purpose:

To enable rigorous evaluation of AI models using diverse, real-world health data — without sharing underlying datasets.

Key Features:

• Privacy-preserving architecture
• Secure sandbox-based model testing
• Real-world dataset benchmarking
• Transparent performance metrics
• Quality assurance protocols

BODH is recognised as a digital public good under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.

Governance and Ethical Safeguards

Together, SAHI and BODH aim to create:

• Trustworthy AI systems
• Bias-mitigated algorithms
• Transparent model validation
• Evidence-backed clinical integration
• Data privacy compliance

The framework ensures that AI deployment in healthcare does not compromise patient confidentiality or clinical integrity.

Broader Policy Context

The initiatives align with India’s broader digital governance vision:

• Responsible AI principles
• Public digital infrastructure development
• Digital public goods framework
• Strengthening India’s global leadership in ethical AI

They also reinforce India’s ambition to become a global hub for scalable, low-cost AI solutions tailored for developing economies.

Significance

• Institutionalises responsible AI adoption in healthcare
• Strengthens trust and transparency in AI-driven diagnostics
• Enhances quality assurance through benchmarking
• Protects patient data while enabling innovation
• Positions India as a leader in ethical Health AI governance

SAHI provides the strategic vision, while BODH ensures operational accountability.