Team siliconindia

• The Ministry of Education has established a dedicated AI Centre of Excellence for Healthcare at IISc to develop and deploy advanced AI-driven medical solutions.
•  The center will use AI to support early diagnosis, risk assessment, and clinical decision-making, especially for high-burden diseases.
• The center is one of four AI-CoEs planned across leading institutions to strengthen AI research, innovation, and real-world adoption in India.

The Ministry of Education has set up a new Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Healthcare at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, to speed up the use of AI in disease detection and primary healthcare delivery.

Named the Translational AI for Networked Universal Healthcare (TANUH) Foundation, the center is part of the government’s broader plan to establish four AI-focused centers at top academic institutions across India. IISc said TANUH has been registered as a Section 8 not-for-profit company, with a clear mandate to design, test, and deploy AI-based tools for the early detection and management of non-communicable diseases.

The center brings together doctors, AI researchers, and data scientists to build practical healthcare solutions. Nine IISc faculty members will lead core research in areas such as digital health, machine learning, and public health. The goal is to turn academic research into tools that can be used on the ground.

A key focus of TANUH is to support frontline healthcare workers. The center plans to develop point-of-care AI tools that can identify health risks early, assist in clinical decision-making, and enable personalized patient monitoring, especially in resource-limited settings.

Initial projects will target high-burden health conditions, including oral cancer, breast cancer, retinal disorders, diabetes, and mental health issues. All AI solutions will follow responsible AI principles and will be tested in close collaboration with clinicians. Partner institutions include AIIMS, New Delhi, among others.

Also Read: IIT Guwahati Hosts First CARE Conference to Shape India's Responsible AI Roadmap

IISc Director Prof. G. Rangarajan said the center aims to deliver scalable and impactful AI solutions for non-communicable diseases. He highlighted the success of Aarogya Aarohan, a mobile-based app developed at IISc for early detection of oral cancer, as a strong foundation for TANUH’s work.

With TANUH, the government and IISc aim to bridge the gap between advanced AI research and real-world healthcare needs.