The Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), participated in the Chintan Shivir – National Review of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) and Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), held on 19 January 2026 at Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The review meeting was organised by the National Health Authority (NHA) and brought together senior officials from the Union and State Governments, technical institutions, and implementing agencies to review progress and accelerate the adoption of digital health initiatives across the country.

The deliberations were aligned with the national objective of advancing digital health through AI-driven innovation and inclusive language access, with a focus on ensuring that digital health platforms are usable, accessible, and effective across linguistic and geographic boundaries.

A key highlight of Day 1 of the event was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the National Health Authority and the Digital India BHASHINI Division to enable multilingual translation services and AI-powered language support across NHA’s digital health platforms, including AB PM-JAY and ABDM.

The MoU was exchanged during the inaugural session in the presence of senior leadership from the Government of Odisha, the National Health Authority, and partner institutions. The collaboration will integrate BHASHINI’s language technologies, including translation APIs, speech recognition, and text-to-speech tools, into beneficiary-facing and administrative applications, thereby strengthening last-mile service delivery and enhancing citizen engagement.

The National Review meeting commenced with a welcome address by the Secretary, Health, Government of Odisha, followed by opening remarks by the Chief Executive Officer, National Health Authority. The inaugural session was graced by Shri Mukesh Mahaling, Minister for Health, Government of Odisha, as the Chief Guest. The occasion also witnessed the launch of the Health Benefit Package Manual and a compendium of Best Practices under AB PM-JAY, along with the exchange of MoUs with partner institutions.

Shri Amitabh Nag, CEO, Digital India BHASHINI Division, participated in the MoU signing and delivered a presentation on “Advancing Digital Health with AI Innovation and Inclusive Language Access.” He highlighted that as digital health systems scale across the country, the adoption of artificial intelligence becomes a natural progression. He emphasized that for AI to deliver meaningful public value in a linguistically diverse country like India, it must be multilingual and voice-enabled, ensuring that language does not become a barrier to accessing healthcare services. He further noted that language AI can significantly enhance citizen engagement, grievance redressal mechanisms, clinical documentation, and the overall accessibility of digital public health platforms.

During the Chintan Shivir deliberations, Shri Kiran Gopal Vaska, Joint Secretary, ABDM, highlighted the practical benefits of language AI in healthcare delivery. He noted that AI-enabled tools such as voice-to-text and natural language processing can help address the time constraints faced by doctors by enabling seamless patient–doctor interactions while allowing electronic health records to be created automatically, thereby improving efficiency and strengthening digital health systems.

Through this partnership, the Digital India BHASHINI Division will support the National Health Authority in deploying multilingual and voice-enabled solutions across beneficiary-facing and administrative platforms, with provisions for responsible data governance, secure system integration, and continuous improvement of language models through real-world usage and feedback.

The MoU aligns with the Government of India’s broader vision of integrating Indian languages into India’s Digital Public Infrastructure and advancing citizen-centric, AI-enabled governance in the health sector.

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