New Delhi, July 5 (IANS). ICMR-MINDS, the flagship project of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has been awarded the Gold Award at the National e-Governance Awards 2026. The award was given by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions in the category ‘Innovative use of AI and other emerging technologies to provide citizen-centric services’.
This prestigious award was presented by Union Minister of State Dr. Jitendra Singh during the 29th National e-Governance Conference-2026 held in Jaipur. This conference was held on 1 and 2 July in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. On this occasion, Information Technology and Communications Minister of Rajasthan Government, Colonel Rajyavardhan Rathore, Chief Secretary of Rajasthan V. Srinivas and Secretary of DARPG and Pension and Pensioners Welfare Department Nivedita Shukla Verma were also present.
ICMR-MINDS is a national health research priority project. It aims to integrate diagnosis and treatment of mental health and addiction problems with services for other non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
The biggest feature of this project is its Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS). This technology enables trained frontline health workers to conduct mental health screening, assessment, follow-up and general treatment in a standardized manner, even without the direct assistance of specialist doctors. This entire process is driven by a digital decision system based on scientific evidence.
The digital platform has features like standardized screening and assessment process, role-based clinical guidance for various healthcare professionals, offline facility, multilingual support, gamified features to engage users and real-time administrative dashboard.
Another important feature is the Continuity of Care Model. Under this, patients are referred to specialists if needed and when the condition becomes normal, they are sent back to their nearest health center for follow-up treatment. This allows specialist doctors to devote more time to complex cases, strengthens the role of frontline health workers, ensures uninterrupted treatment of patients and also reduces pressure on large hospitals.
This project is being implemented in seven states of the country with the collaboration of seven leading institutions. These include AIIMS Guwahati (Assam), Gujarat Institute of Mental Health (Ahmedabad), AIIMS New Delhi (Delhi), St. John’s Medical College (Bengaluru, Karnataka), AIIMS Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), AIIMS Bhubaneswar (Odisha) and PGIMER, Chandigarh (Punjab).
Commenting on this achievement, Dr. Rajeev Bahl, Secretary, Department of Health Research and Director General, ICMR, said that ICMR will remain committed to developing solutions to the country’s public health challenges through data-based and large-scale applicable technologies in the future.
He said that ICMR in collaboration with partner institutions and state health systems will continue to work towards providing affordable, standardized and high quality health services to the countrymen.
The state health departments of Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Punjab, state mental health and NCD programs, district health officers, principal investigators, co-investigators, health workers and field teams have contributed significantly to the success of this project.
–IANS
VKU/AS