The Indian Institute of Technology, Indore (IIT-I) has taken a significant stride in advancing India's digital healthcare landscape. Its flagship initiative, DISHA 2.0, has successfully identified and shortlisted 50 high-potential healthcare solutions from a competitive pool of 286 applications received from across the nation. This move firmly establishes the institute as a pivotal national hub for deployable digital health innovations designed to directly impact patients and transform healthcare delivery systems.
Focus on Real-World Healthcare Challenges
The solutions chosen under the DISHA 2.0 programme are laser-focused on tackling pressing, real-world medical challenges. The selected innovations span critical areas including early disease detection, AI-driven diagnostics, remote patient monitoring, and data-based clinical decision support systems. According to officials, these technologies promise to deliver tangible benefits to the common citizen by enabling earlier diagnosis, reducing overall treatment costs, and improving access to specialist care through digital platforms. A key expected outcome is the easing of pressure on overcrowded hospitals, a chronic issue particularly in smaller cities and underserved regions of India.
Structured Support for Research and Startups
DISHA 2.0 is not just a selection platform but a comprehensive support system. It actively backs faculty-led research, student innovations, and startups registered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). The programme provides structured mentorship, technology validation, intellectual property facilitation, and commercialisation guidance. This end-to-end support is crucial for ensuring that promising research outcomes successfully transition from laboratory settings into real-world hospitals and public health systems, creating measurable societal impact.
Funding and Recognition for Innovators
The scale and seriousness of the initiative were underscored during the recent DISHA 2.0 award ceremony held at IIT Indore. The programme, implemented by IIT-I's DRISHTI CPS Foundation under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has allocated substantial resources. The current cohort includes 21 startups and 29 research projects, along with six fellowships, backed by an overall funding support of approximately Rs 15 crore. At the ceremony, innovators were recognised specifically for the scalability and potential societal impact of their work.
Professor Suhas S. Joshi, Director of IIT Indore, emphasised the institute's commitment, stating that the initiative reflects a strong focus on translational research and collaboration between academia, clinicians, and industry. The goal is to build a sustainable digital healthcare ecosystem that is fully aligned with national health priorities. The growing importance of technology in medicine was further highlighted by the keynote speaker, Lt Gen (Retd) Ashok Jindal, Director of AIIMS Raipur. He underlined the transformative role of artificial intelligence and data analytics in enhancing healthcare accessibility and improving clinical outcomes for patients across the country.
