Key Points
- IndiaAI and ICMR sign MoU to develop AI-powered healthcare solutions using shared datasets
- ICMR to contribute anonymised health research data to IndiaAI's AIKosh platform
- India recognised as Pioneer Country under HealthAI Global Regulatory Network in September 2025
IndiaAI and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) signed an agreement on Thursday to jointly develop artificial intelligence tools for healthcare, combining government computing infrastructure with India’s largest repository of biomedical research data.
The memorandum of understanding gives researchers, startups and healthcare innovators access to anonymised medical datasets that were previously siloed within ICMR’s network of research institutes. In return, ICMR gains subsidised access to the graphics processing units and high-performance computers needed to train AI models — hardware that most public research institutions in India cannot afford independently.
IndiaAI is the Centre’s flagship AI programme, implemented through the Digital India Corporation under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. ICMR is the apex body for biomedical and health research in the country.
What the Partnership Covers
Under the agreement, ICMR will contribute health research datasets, AI models and software tools developed under its MIDAS framework — a system that organises and standardises medical information specifically for AI applications — to IndiaAI’s AIKosh platform. AIKosh is a centralised repository that hosts datasets from multiple government sources, making them accessible to approved developers and researchers.
The datasets will be anonymised and cleared by ethics committees before upload. IndiaAI will provide ICMR with access to GPU-based computing at subsidised rates, subject to service-level agreements that define availability and performance standards.
Both institutions will co-develop AI solutions targeting priority public health challenges. These will draw on ICMR’s disease burden data — records of which illnesses affect which populations and in what numbers — to identify where AI tools could have the greatest impact.
Building on Global Recognition
The MoU formalises a relationship that began publicly in September 2025, when IndiaAI and ICMR’s National Institute for Research in Digital Health and Data Sciences were recognised as Pioneer Countries under the HealthAI Global Regulatory Network. The GRN is a multilateral initiative co-founded with the United Kingdom and Singapore to develop responsible governance standards for AI in healthcare.
A three-way agreement between IndiaAI, ICMR and HealthAI followed that recognition, setting the groundwork for the operational partnership announced today.
The collaboration is designed to address a structural gap in Indian healthcare AI development: research institutions have the data and domain expertise, while the computing power to process that data at scale sits with central government programmes. Bridging this divide could accelerate the development of diagnostic tools, treatment protocols and public health surveillance systems that use machine learning.
Your Questions, Answered
What does the IndiaAI-ICMR MoU cover?
The agreement enables sharing of anonymised health research datasets through the AIKosh platform and provides ICMR with subsidised access to GPU computing infrastructure for AI model training.
What is the AIKosh platform?
AIKosh is IndiaAI's centralised repository that hosts datasets from multiple government sources, making them accessible to approved researchers, startups and developers for AI development.
What is the MIDAS framework?
MIDAS — Medical Information Data for AI Solutions — is ICMR's system for organising and standardising medical information specifically for artificial intelligence applications.
How does this partnership benefit healthcare AI development in India?
It bridges a structural gap where research institutions hold data and domain expertise while computing power sits with central government programmes, enabling faster development of diagnostic tools and public health systems.
