A high-level delegation from the Government of Kenya, led by Dr. Gregory Ganda, visited the National Health Authority (NHA) to study India’s flagship health programmes and digital health infrastructure. The delegation included senior officials from both national and county-level health systems in Kenya.
The Kenyan team was briefed by Dr. Sunil Kumar Barnwal and other NHA officials on Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), the world’s largest government-funded health insurance scheme, and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), India’s national digital health ecosystem built on the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) framework.
Key discussions on PM-JAY focused on technology-enabled accountability, including Aadhaar-based beneficiary verification, pre-authorization processes, hospital risk profiling, and a multi-layered anti-fraud system using machine learning and image analytics across 33,000+ hospitals. Since 2018, PM-JAY has facilitated over 116 million hospital admissions worth ₹1.67 lakh crore ($18 billion) for vulnerable populations.
On ABDM, the delegation explored India’s consent-driven, interoperable digital health infrastructure, linking 860 million ABHA health IDs and 882 million electronic health records. Potential areas for collaboration included leveraging digital infrastructure for drug logistics, supply chain governance, and rational drug use.
Dr. Barnwal said, “We are pleased to share our experiences with our Kenyan partners. This South-South collaboration will meaningfully support their efforts in building citizen-centric health systems.”
The visit reinforced the commitment of both countries to co-design scalable, technology-driven, and affordable health solutions, leveraging private sector partnerships and shared digital public goods.
Nurturing Creativity – Keekli Charitable Trust, Shimla
