**Executive Summary**
The National Health Authority (NHA), in collaboration with ICMR-NIRDHDS and IIT Kanpur, organized the Federated Intelligence Hackathon for Healthcare at IIT Kanpur from January 19-24, 2026. The initiative aims to advance secure and scalable artificial intelligence solutions for India's healthcare ecosystem. The hackathon's award ceremonies and assessment are scheduled for January 23-24, 2026.
**Key Points / Main Content**
* **Hackathon Overview:**
* The Federated Intelligence Hackathon for Healthcare took place from January 19-23, 2026, at IIT Kanpur.
* The two-day on-site program commenced on January 23, 2026, featuring expert sessions, technical presentations, and panel discussions.
* The event brought together policymakers, clinicians, researchers, start-ups, and industry experts.
* The hackathon received 191 registrations (76 individual participants and 115 teams).
* **Keynote and Technical Sessions:**
* Prof. Sandeep Verma highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary research and cross-domain collaboration (medicine, engineering, data science, and policy) in Health AI.
* Prof. Phaneendra Kumar Yalavarthy covered machine learning methods, clinical evaluation of AI systems, and regulatory considerations.
* **AI Demonstration and Panel Discussions:**
* A live Health AI demonstration was presented by Google Health AI and the Wadhwani Foundation.
* Panel discussions focused on Health Technology Assessment (HTA), data sourcing for Health AI, validation pathways, regulatory readiness, data standardisation, and large-scale deployment.
* **Focus Areas and Objectives:**
* Domain-specific sessions showcased AI use cases in ophthalmology, bone age detection, and computational pathology.
* The event aims to strengthen data readiness, validation frameworks, and the clinical applicability of Health AI tools.
* **Closing Remarks and Future Deliberations:**
* The technical program concluded with remarks on responsible AI deployment in healthcare.
* January 24, 2026, featured policy deliberations, responsible AI frameworks, and presentations by top-performing teams.
* Hackathon prize winners will be announced, followed by a certificate handover and valedictory session.
* **Prize:**
* The hackathon carries a total prize pool of ₹12 lakh.
**Impact Analysis**
**Stakeholder**: NHA (National Health Authority)
* **Impact**: NHA's digital health and governance perspective is strengthened through initiatives like the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
* **Action Required**: Continue to support and integrate the outcomes of the hackathon to drive the development and deployment of AI solutions in healthcare.
**Stakeholder**: ICMR-NIRDHDS
* **Impact**: ICMR-NIRDHDS's clinical research and data science expertise is leveraged to advance Health AI.
* **Action Required**: Continue to provide clinical research and data science expertise to the health AI initiative.
**Stakeholder**: IIT Kanpur
* **Impact**: IIT Kanpur's capabilities in artificial intelligence and federated systems are utilized to address challenges in healthcare.
* **Action Required**: Continue to lend its advanced AI capabilities to the health sector.
**Stakeholder**: Health-tech Start-ups, AI/ML Researchers and Developers, Clinicians, and Medical Institutions
* **Impact**: Provides a platform for collaboration, innovation, and the development of AI solutions for healthcare.
* **Action Required**: Engage in post-hackathon assessment and contribute to the validation and deployment of AI tools within public health systems.
**Stakeholder**: Policymakers
* **Impact**: Informed on AI solutions for healthcare, regulatory and validation pathways.
* **Action Required**: Deliberate on policy-level frameworks for responsible AI in healthcare.
Key Entities Referenced
National Health Authority (NHA): Primary organizer of the Federated Intelligence Hackathon for Healthcare.
IIT Kanpur: Location and collaborator for the Federated Intelligence Hackathon for Healthcare.
Federated Intelligence Hackathon for Healthcare: Initiative focused on advancing secure and scalable artificial intelligence solutions for India's healthcare ecosystem.
ICMR–National Institute for Research in Digital Health and Data Science (ICMR-NIRDHDS): Collaborator for the Federated Intelligence Hackathon for Healthcare, providing clinical research and data science expertise.
Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission: Initiative through which the NHA brings its digital health and governance perspective.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
National Health Authority Organizes Federated
Intelligence Hackathon for Healthcare at IIT
Kanpur
Initiative aims at advancing secure and scalable artificial
intelligence solutions for India’s healthcare ecosystem
Day 1 Focuses on Data, Regulation and Clinical Readiness of
Health AI
प्रव तथ: 23 JAN 2026 5:43PM by PIB Delhi
The National Health Authority (NHA), in collaboration with the ICMR–National Institute for Research in
Digital Health and Data Science (ICMR–NIRDHDS) and Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
organized the Federated Intelligence Hackathon for Healthcare at the IIT Kanpur campus. The national-
level initiative aims to advance secure and scalable artificial intelligence solutions for India’s healthcare
ecosystem.
The Federated Intelligence Hackathon for Healthcare commenced on 19 January 2026, with Hackathon
Week (19–23 January 2026) featuring intensive technical development, mentoring and evaluations at IIT
Kanpur. The two-day on-site programme, beginning on 23 January 2026, brought together policymakers,
clinicians, researchers, start-ups and industry experts for expert sessions, technical presentations and panel
discussions.
Prof. Sandeep Verma, Head of the Gangwal School of Medical Sciences and TechnologyThe sessions commenced with a keynote address by Prof. Sandeep Verma, Head of the Gangwal School of
Medical Sciences and Technology. He highlighted the pivotal role of interdisciplinary research in driving
AI-enabled healthcare innovation. Prof. Verma underscored the necessity of cross-domain collaboration,
emphasizing that meaningful progress in Health AI can only be achieved through the integration of
medicine, engineering, data science, and policy. He noted that such convergence is essential to building
sustainable and impactful healthcare systems for the future.
Prof. Phaneendra Kumar Yalavarthy, Chief PM, TANUH, IISc Bengaluru
This was followed by technical sessions by Prof. Phaneendra Kumar Yalavarthy, Chief PM, TANUH, IISc
Bengaluru, covering traditional machine learning methods, clinical evaluation of AI systems and
regulatory considerations for healthcare deployment. He opined that, “AI in healthcare has evolved from
rule-based systems to data-driven learning, where deep learning enables autonomous feature discovery for
complex tasks like medical image segmentation. By balancing bias–variance, applying methods such as
regression, SVMs, and regularization, we can build robust, reliable, and clinically sustainable digital
health solutions.”
The programme also featured a live Health AI demonstration by Google Health AI and the Wadhwani
Foundation, presented by Manish Kumar, Vice President – AI Platform, Wadhwani Foundation. Panel
discussions on Health Technology Assessment (HTA) for algorithms and data sourcing for Health AI in
India brought together experts from government, industry and academia, including representatives from
Samsung India, Google Health AI, CoRover.ai, ArtPark@IISc and NITI Aayog. The discussions focused
on validation pathways, regulatory readiness, data standardisation and large-scale deployment of AI tools
within public health systems.Domain-specific sessions showcased datasets and AI use cases in ophthalmology, bone age detection and
computational pathology, highlighting emerging opportunities for population-scale screening and
diagnostics. The technical programme concluded with remarks on responsible AI deployment in
healthcare by Prof. Nisheeth Srivastava, IIT Kanpur.
The hackathon has received 191 registrations, comprising 76 individual participants and 115 teams,
reflecting strong nationwide participation from health-tech start-ups, AI/ML researchers and developers,
clinicians, and medical institutions. The collaboration brings together NHA’s digital health and governance
perspective through initiatives such as the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, ICMR–NIRDHDS’s clinical
research and data science expertise, and IIT Kanpur’s advanced capabilities in artificial intelligence and
federated systems, with a shared objective of strengthening data readiness, validation frameworks and
clinical applicability of Health AI tools.
The hackathon carries a total prize pool of ₹12 lakh, with post-hackathon assessment and award
ceremonies scheduled on 23–24 January 2026, respectively. Discussions on 23rd January 2026 highlighted
the need to address foundational challenges in validating Health AI at scale. Programmes scheduled for24th January 2026 will focus on policy-level deliberations, responsible AI frameworks, presentations by
top-performing teams of the hackathon across priority healthcare use cases, announcement of hackathon
prize winners, certificate handover, and the valedictory session.
***
SR
HFW/NHA Hackathon/23rd January 2026/1
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