New Delhi [India], February 17 : Catharina Boehme, Officer-in-Charge (OIC) WHO South-East Asia Region, underscored how SAHI (Secure AI for Health Initiative) digital health initiative is one-of-a-kind, as India is the first country to have an AI strategy for health.
Boehme, while talking to ANI, said that WHO helped in the drafting and development of the strategy, and now it's all about implementation.
"The launch of this strategy, SAHI, is so important because India is the first country in the region that has such an AI strategy for health and one of the first countries globally. It is important because on the one hand it describes concretely how we will make progress and implement AI, but also it tells us how we implement it responsibly from a governance perspective," she said.
"From an ethical perspective, we accept patient rights, informed consent, access, you know, how we access data, etc. So, you know, AI can save a lot of lives, but it also bears risks. And I feel this strategy and the launch of this strategy will help the government of India to implement AI responsibly. WHO helped already in the drafting and development of the strategy, and now it's all about implementation," she added.
She added that the further processes will involve training of the personnel.
"That's the next step, the operationalization and that's where training will matter a lot. Training of health personnel, health care workers, capacity building, operationalisation, bringing the innovation to the ground, basically. That will be our next step, and we look forward to that phase," she said.
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Jagat Prakash Nadda, today launched two pioneering digital health initiatives SAHI (Secure AI for Health Initiative) and BODH (Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI) during the India AI Impact Summit 2026. The launch marks a significant milestone in advancing safe, ethical, and evidence-based deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in India's healthcare ecosystem.
Describing the Summit as both timely and necessary, Nadda emphasised that AI does not operate in isolation, but thrives on strong digital infrastructure and high-quality data. Recognising this early, India began laying its digital foundations nearly a decade ago. In 2015, under the leadership of PM Modi, the Government launched the Digital India programme to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
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