AI must be shaped by ethical oversight: Nadda
Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents immense opportunities for advancing healthcare delivery, but it must be shaped by sound regulation, ethical oversight and a deep commitment to equity, Union Health Minister JP Nadda has said. Nadda made the remarks while addressing an event on ‘Artificial Intelligence in Health: Laws, Ethical Oversight, Research and Equity’ at the 79th World Health Assembly in Geneva.
“While AI presents immense opportunities for advancing healthcare delivery, it must be shaped by sound regulation, rigorous research, ethical oversight and a deep commitment to equity so its benefits reach every citizen,” he said.
The minister said India laid a strong digital foundation over a decade ago under Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the launch of the Digital India initiative in 2015. He said the initiative was aimed at transforming India into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy, preparing the country for future technologies, including AI.
Nadda said India’s National Health Policy of 2017 envisioned an integrated, interoperable, inclusive and scalable digital health ecosystem, which later led to the launch of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission in 2021, along with consent-based digital health data frameworks.
He stressed that digitisation and data alone are insufficient to achieve better health outcomes, and sector-specific governance frameworks are essential for the safe and responsible deployment of AI.
He also highlighted the launch of the Strategy for AI in Healthcare for India (SAHI) during the India AI Impact Summit in February 2026.
Describing SAHI as the first comprehensive strategy emerging from the Global South, Nadda said it would guide India’s healthcare journey in an ethical, transparent and people-centric manner. Nadda said the country is governing AI for 1.4 billion citizens across 22 official languages and varying levels of healthcare access.
All the same, the minister cautioned that while AI has the potential to bridge healthcare gaps, it could also deepen inequities if not designed responsibly.
He also spoke about the creation of BODH – Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI - which benchmarks AI solutions against real-world datasets to ensure they perform safely and equitably. Nadda said no country can address the challenges and opportunities of AI in isolation and stressed the need for trusted and interoperable health data ecosystems, collaborative research and ethical AI development.
He said innovation must be guided by regulation, scale must be earned through trust and technological advancement must remain anchored in equity, ethics and public good.
Nadda said that according to the prime minister’s vision, India believes not merely in “Artificial Intelligence” but in “All-Inclusive Intelligence” and called upon the global community to ensure AI becomes a force for global good.
