Union Minister Anupriya Singh Patel called out the scientific community to harness AI and genomics for next-gen healthcare and lead the world in these futuristic technologies.
Speaking at the Health Research Excellence Summit 2025 in New Delhi on Thursday, Patel said, “India should not only contribute to global science but lead it.”
Drawing attention to India’s emerging role as a major player in health research over the past decade, she underlined the Initiatives such as MedTech Mitra and innovations like Rotavac and the COVID-19 vaccines, as a testament to India’s growing prominence in the global health research landscape.
The Union Minister emphasized the Government’s commitment to ensuring that the benefits of science and research reach people at all levels.
“India is becoming increasingly self-reliant in the MedTech and biomedical innovation sectors. The country is not only innovating but also demonstrating the capacity to deliver solutions at scale,” she added.
At a day-long Summit organised by the Department of Health Research (DHR) in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Dr Vinod Kumar Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog, urged the DHR to focus on priority areas such as non-communicable diseases (NCDs), hypertension, and trauma care.
He chalked out a ten-step roadmap to achieve this vision, including measures such as strengthening primary healthcare through 1.8 lakh fully functional Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (AAMs), offering comprehensive packages for cancer, hypertension, oral health, and more, promoting awareness of India’s traditional systems of medicine, and leveraging frontier technologies such as AI and robotics for innovative health solutions, among others.
The summit also witnessed the unveiling of several DHR-ICMR initiatives, including MedTech Mitra’s innovator’s guidebook for in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) medical devices, and an assessment kit for evaluating Upper Limb functions that was developed indigenously by the Centre of Advanced Research & Excellence – Disability & Assistive Technology (CARE-DAT) at IIT Delhi and AIIMS Delhi.