Google Pledges $400,000 to Support India’s Health Foundation Model

The funding will support the development of India-specific Health Foundation Models using Google’s MedGemma technology, enabling interoperable, AI-ready health data infrastructure.

Google has committed $400,000 to support the development of India’s Health Foundation Model (HFM), a foundational digital health infrastructure initiative aimed at enabling interoperable, standardized, and AI-ready health data systems for the country’s public health ecosystem.

The funding will be used to support collaborations that leverage Google’s MedGemma models to build India-specific Health Foundation Models, which will help improve healthcare provider efficiency and support better patient outcomes through digital public health data and AI innovation.

Harsh Dhand, GenAI, Research, Labs & Core Partnership Lead at APAC, Google, said the initiative reflects Google’s commitment to enabling responsible AI adoption in India’s healthcare landscape.

“By supporting the development of India’s Health Foundation Models, we aim to accelerate the creation of interoperable, open digital health frameworks that empower local research, innovation and improved clinical workflows.”

Under the initiative, Google is partnering with academic and clinical institutions. For example, tech partner Ajna Lens will collaborate with experts from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to develop models for India-specific use cases such as dermatology and outpatient triaging.

Researchers and clinicians at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) will explore broader clinical applications to contribute to the Health Foundation Model’s dataset and analytical capabilities.

The Health Foundation Model initiative builds on Google’s recent AI and digital health investments in India, including multi-million-dollar funding for AI Centres of Excellence, support for responsible AI research, and collaborations aligned with national digital health efforts such as the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).

Google has also been expanding its work on healthcare-focused large language models, open medical datasets, and AI tools aimed at improving diagnostics, clinical documentation, and public health surveillance.

Together, these efforts position the Health Foundation Model as a key enabler of India’s next phase of AI-driven healthcare innovation, supporting scalable, secure, and population-level health intelligence across public and private health systems.

Stay tuned for more such updates on Digital Health News