Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Chief Executive Officer, National Health Authority,
Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Chief Executive Officer, National Health Authority, noted that India is among the first countries in the Global South to establish such a platform for validating AI solutions against India-specific datasets, as a digital public good.
Bengaluru:The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), in collaboration with the National Health Authority (NHA), IndiaAI Mission, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, today inaugurated the AB PM-JAY Auto-Adjudication Hackathon Showcase 2026, marking the commencement of a two-day national event focused on leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to strengthen health claims management under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).
Addressing the event, Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Chief Executive Officer, National Health Authority, said robust and transparent claims adjudication is central to building trust among empanelled hospitals, ensuring timely settlements, and improving programme integrity.
He further added that the vast and diverse data generated under AB PM-JAY offers immense potential for leveraging AI to further strengthen efficiency, transparency, and outcomes.
Barnwal highlighted that NHA has been actively promoting AI in healthcare, including the development of BODH, an Open Benchmarking and Data Platform for Health AI at IIT Kanpur, launched during the IndiaAI Impact Summit.
He noted that India is among the first countries in the Global South to establish such a platform for validating AI solutions against India-specific datasets, as a digital public good.
He stated that the initiative presents a significant opportunity not only to strengthen healthcare delivery under Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, but also to enhance the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare ecosystem through technology.
He emphasized that innovation is distributed across society—spanning institutions, academia, startups, and industry—and initiatives such as hackathons help harness this collective potential to solve complex healthcare challenges.
The programme also featured a high-level panel discussion on “Building AI for Indian Healthcare”, chaired by Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
The panel brought together distinguished representatives from government, healthcare technology enterprises, academia, and the broader AI ecosystem to deliberate on practical pathways, policy considerations, and operational strategies for the adoption and scaling of AI solutions within India’s healthcare system.
Discussions focused on the role of Small Language Models (SLMs), Large Language Models (LLMs) and multimodal AI systems in addressing diverse healthcare use cases, particularly in low resource and local language settings. Panellists also highlighted the importance of workflow integration, validation frameworks, quality datasets, edge deployment, privacy safeguards and scalable implementation pathways for AI solutions in healthcare delivery.
The AB PMJAY Auto-Adjudication Hackathon aims to drive innovative digital solutions that seamlessly integrate with existing AB-PMJAY infrastructure, reduce manual effort, speed up processing, and build a scalable, future-ready adjudication framework for the entire ecosystem.
Through this initiative, the NHA reaffirms its commitment to harnessing responsible Artificial Intelligence to strengthen health systems, improve efficiency in claims management and support transparent and technology-driven healthcare delivery under AB PM-JAY.
The inaugural day brought together policymakers, technology innovators, insurers, Third Party Administrators (TPAs), healthcare providers, academia, and AI startups to deliberate and demonstrate cutting-edge AI-enabled solutions aimed at enhancing efficiency, transparency, and integrity in claims adjudication.