Prime Highlights
- ICMR-MINDS won the Gold Award for using AI to deliver citizen-centric healthcare services.
- The platform helps frontline healthcare workers provide standardised mental healthcare with digital support.
Key Facts
- ICMR-MINDS is a National Health Research Priority project focused on mental and substance use disorders.
- The initiative is currently being implemented across seven Indian states through seven collaborating institutions.
Background
ICMR-MINDS, the leading project of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has won the prestigious Gold Award in the category of Innovation by Use of AI and Other New Age Technologies for Providing Citizen-centric Services, which is part of the National Awards for e-Governance. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pension is organising these awards.
These awards were presented at the National Conference on e-Governance 2026 held in Jaipur in the first week of July. This award recognises the ICMR-MINDS for their use of artificial intelligence and digital means to make mental health care accessible in India.
ICMR-MINDS is a National Health Research Priority project that integrates the screening and management of mental and substance use disorders with other non-communicable diseases. Its Clinical Decision Support System enables trained frontline healthcare workers to carry out standardised mental health screening, assessment, follow-up and routine care with evidence-based digital support, reducing reliance on specialists.
This platform provides digital screening capabilities, role-based clinical guidelines, multilingual capabilities, offline mode and live dashboards for the evaluation of healthcare services. In addition, the platform provides structured referral and back referral systems, whereby stable patients can be managed in local health facilities while specialists can manage complicated cases.
The initiative is being implemented across seven states through seven partner institutions, including AIIMS campuses, the Gujarat Institute of Mental Health, St. John’s Medical College and PGIMER Chandigarh.
ICMR Director General Dr Rajiv Bahl said the council will continue developing data-driven and scalable technology solutions to address public health challenges while expanding access to affordable and standardised healthcare services across the country.
