
AI is changing the fabric of healthcare across the world, and India is now stepping forward with grand plans in cancer care. IndiaAI’s Independent Business Division (IBD) partnered with the National Cancer Grid (NCG) in announcing the launch of the Cancer AI & Technology Challenge CATCH grant program. The present initiative intends to support innovation through the funding of AI-enabled solutions for enhancing cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment, and healthcare operations in India.
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The Vision Behind CATCH-
Every year, thousands of lives are at stake from the deadliest cancer. The people in India suffer from a shortage of detection and autonomous treatment options, which contribute to delayed diagnoses during the process. The CATCH Program has been initiated as a challenge to address these open-ended concerns through the utilisation of AI tools to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility of cancer care pathways.
The grant program will allow the selected teams to obtain up to ₹50 lakh per project, with an additional ₹1 crore scale-up grant to be made available for projects that are already clinically impactful and ready for widespread use.
How the Program Works-
Funding Structure:
Each selected project can receive support up to ₹50 lakhs. Further, there will be an additional ₹1 crore for scaling up.
IndiaAI and NCG jointly fund. Eligible applicants include:
- Start-ups and health technology companies;
- The academic institutions.
- The public and private hospitals.
Joint applications are encouraged between Clinical Leads (hospitals of clinicians) and Technical Leads (AI providers).
Focus Areas:
AI-led Cancer Screening:
- Major advancement lies in detecting cancer, with preliminary evidence with great accuracy in medical images.
- Further capabilities exist for administering large population-wide cancer screening in urban and rural settings.
- It allows mobile integration for real-time screening and evidence acquired from remote areas.
Diagnostic Assistance:
- It assists radiologists and pathologists by flagging suspicious regions in scans.
- That must be further double-checked against large AI-trained datasets, lessening the possibility of human error.
- Quick diagnosis will, however, promote faster initiation of treatment.

Access the Remote Data Protocol:
The Remote Data Protocol Module is responsible for interfacing between the RIS and PACS, and thus, it enables one to track the data packages.
- It helps clinicians customise treatments on genetic and lifestyle grounds.
- It will bring the latest recommendations and guidelines based on ongoing research in oncology.
Patient Engagement Solutions:
- This would establish AI chatterbots to engage patients in answering queries and making appointment schedules.
- Reminders for medications, follow-up visits, and lifestyle changes will be given.
- Continuous remote monitoring through wearable health devices is enabled.
Operational Efficacy Improvements:
- Arrangement processes in hospitals ease the wait period and reduce unnecessary load on administrative work.
- Optimise using allocation of resources, like making staff schedules and equipment utilisation effective.
- AI use in the automatic management of patient records cuts down the paperwork.
Research and Data Curation Tools:
- Organises massive volumes of cancer-related clinical and genomic data.
- Enabling speedy discovery of patterns capable of leading to exceptional breakthroughs in treatments.
- Promoting multi-centre collaborative research in a secure AI-powered platform.
Strategic Importance for India-
The CATCH initiative goes beyond using technology; it is supposed to integrate AI into clinical workflows and fundamentally change the health system of India. The National Cancer Grid connects more than 300 cancer centres across the country and offers possibilities for pilot solutions to be tested on real-world setups and scaled. If successful, this program could bridge the gap between urban-rural healthcare and bring India to a global position in AI-driven oncology.
Reasons Why This Program Is Needed-
India registers above 1.3 million new cancer cases each year, and the number is only going to grow. A dearth of oncology specialists and inequitable access to advanced diagnostics lead many patients to be diagnosed at a late stage. AI-driven systems can:
- Fast-track the identification of abnormalities.
- Facilitate the clinician’s better judgment.
- Decrease turnaround time across lab reports.
- Allow remote diagnostics for the populations residing in rural places.
ISRO’s Parallel Contributions to AI in Healthcare-
Indeed, while ISRO is quite famous for its explorations of space and related endeavours, its satellite imaging and remote sensing facets have made indirect contributions to medical research. Data science collaborations with healthcare researchers have shown how AI models can integrate geospatial data to predict disease spread and resource allocation—factors that could be complementary to cancer treatment strategies.
Potential Impacts on India-
Healthcare Equity:
The rural regions have access to best-in-class diagnostics powered by AI. Advanced telemedicine aids in bridging the huge divide between the remote villages and the specialised urban hospitals.
AI-enabled mobile diagnostic vans can undertake doorstep screening in neglected communities.
Economic Savings:
- Early diagnosis enables less expensive treatment for both the patient and the healthcare system.
- AI is expected to bring more improvements in hospital efficiency and reduce unnecessary diagnostic tests as well.
- Preventive care on account of AI interventions can reduce the burden on public health infrastructure in due time.
Innovation Ecosystem:
- Works to create incentives for startups and academics to focus on social-impact technologies.
- It can nurture new waves of med-tech entrepreneurs across India through grants like CATCH.
- Seamless tech- and physician-collaboration may speed the transition of health care into new tech frontiers.
Global Recognition:
- It positions India as a leader in the responsible large-scale implementation of AI for healthcare.
- Such programs could present models for other developing countries with similar healthcare problems.
- International ties and research collaborations can sprout from there, thus enhancing India’s global leadership in AI.

Comparison with Previous Initiatives-
While there is an infusion of AI into India’s agriculture and education, CATCH stands apart in being the only AI initiative that is dedicated to cancer care. The combined structured pilot-to-scale model and clinical validation requirements ensure innovative solutions that are deployable.
What does Responsible AI Development Entail?
This program focuses on:
- Ethics around the use of AI.
- Compliance with data privacy regulations.
- Bias identification and reduction in AI models.
- Validation in a clinical setting before roll-out on a large scale.
- This establishes that, amidst technological advancement, patient trust and safety are primarily important.
How the Application Works-
The applications will be received through the IndiaAI and NCG online portal, with the last date of submission being September 2nd 2025. Each proposal will be judged on:
- Technical maturity.
- Feasibility of implementation.
- Alignment with clinical requirements.
- Potential for measurable impact.
- Measurable impact potential.
Final Thoughts-
The IndiaAI-NCG Cancer AI & Technology Challenge is not just a funding program but a national call to harness AI to save lives. The challenge will bolster India’s fight against cancer while nurturing technology self-reliance with access to millions of hospitals and larger funding of up to ₹1.5 crores, with extreme focus on responsible AI.
FAQs-
A: Startups, health tech companies, academic institutions, and both public and private hospitals can apply. Collaborative proposals between clinical and technical sides are highly recommended.
The funding limit for projects selected to receive funding can go up to a maximum of ₹50 lakh for piloting and ₹1 crore for scale-up upon achieving robust clinical and operational outcomes from the pilot stage.
A: Projects that target AI-assisted activities in cancer screening, diagnostic assistance tools, patient engagement, and hospital operations efficiencies, as well as research data curation, will be prioritised. Solutions show a clear pathway towards clinical impact and scaling across India’s healthcare infrastructure.
A: Any awarded projects would initially have to undergo an ethical review process, a data privacy process about patient data, and a bias evaluation. Any solution can be allowed to scale only after clinical validation.
A: Yes, the bridging of the urban-rural health divide is one of the program’s guiding principles. CATCH-facilitated AI-driven mobile screening units and telemedicine instruments will provide rural communities with access to advanced cancer diagnostics and care.