The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)'s flagship initiative, ICMR-MINDS, a National Health Research Priority project, has been conferred the Gold Award under Category 2 — Innovation by Use of AI and Other New Age Technologies for Providing Citizen-Centric Services — at the National Awards for e-Governance, instituted by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions.

The award was presented by Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, in the presence of Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore, Minister for Information Technology and Communication, Government of Rajasthan; Shri V. Srinivas, Chief Secretary, Government of Rajasthan; and Smt. Nivedita Shukla Verma, Secretary, DARPG and Department of Pension & Pensioners' Welfare, Government of India. The presentation took place during the 29th National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) 2026, held in Jaipur, Rajasthan, on July 1–2, 2026.

ICMR-MINDS is an implementation research study on the integration of screening and management of mental and substance use disorders with other non-communicable diseases. Its Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) enables task-shifting of standardised mental health screening, assessment, follow-up, and routine management from specialists to trained non-specialist frontline healthcare providers, backed by evidence-based digital decision support.

The platform offers standardised digital screening and assessment workflows, role-based clinical guidance, offline functionality, multilingual interfaces, and gamified features to sustain user engagement, alongside real-time administrative dashboards for monitoring service delivery and reducing dependence on specialists. A key strength lies in its continuity-of-care framework, which supports structured referral and bidirectional back-referral pathways — allowing stable patients to receive follow-up care at their nearest health facility while specialists focus on complex cases. This optimises specialist time, empowers frontline providers to deliver standardised mental healthcare, improves treatment adherence, eases the burden on tertiary care centres, and reduces patient dropout across the continuum of care.

The initiative is being implemented across seven states through seven collaborating institutions: All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Guwahati (Assam); Gujarat Institute of Mental Health (GIMH), Ahmedabad (Gujarat); AIIMS, New Delhi (Haryana); St. John's Medical College, Bengaluru (Karnataka); AIIMS, Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh); AIIMS, Bhubaneswar (Odisha); and Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh (Punjab).

Reacting to the recognition, Dr Rajiv Bahl, Secretary, Department of Health Research, and Director General, ICMR, said, "ICMR will continue to pioneer data-driven, scalable technology interventions to solve complex public health challenges. Through ongoing collaboration with participating institutions and state health systems, ICMR remains committed to providing affordable, standardised, and high-quality healthcare platforms for the people of India."

The success of ICMR-MINDS has been made possible through close collaboration with the State Health Departments of Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Punjab, along with State Mental Health and NCD Programme teams, district health authorities, Principal Investigators, Co-Principal Investigators, healthcare professionals, and field teams across the participating states.

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