India has become the first country in the world to launch a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), marking a milestone in the global effort to preserve and advance traditional medicine systems through cutting-edge technology, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
In this notable boost to the global healthcare innovation, the WHO has published a very technically briefed report, titled Mapping the Application of Artificial Intelligence in Traditional Medicine, acknowledging India’s pioneering work in combining Artificial Intelligence (AI) with traditional medicine, particularly within the Ayush systems.
The WHO publication follows a proposal made by India, which led to the development of the organisation’s first-ever roadmap for applying AI in traditional medicine, the Ministry of Ayush said in a statement.
According to the Ministry, India’s push to leverage AI to strengthen and expand the reach of its Ayush systems reflects Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s wider vision of making the country a global leader in digital health and traditional medicine integration.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit in 2023, Modi underlined India’s commitment to inclusive innovation, saying, “We have developed government policies and programmes inspired by the spirit of ‘AI for all’.
"Our endeavour is to take full advantage of the capabilities of AI for social development and inclusive growth.”
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ayush and Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, said the WHO’s technical brief highlights the dedication of India’s scientific community in modernising traditional medicine with advanced technology.
This WHO’s recognition does not only reinforces India’s growing leadership in the global traditional medicine sphere but also points to several Indian innovations at the intersection of AI and Ayush. The report features a wide range of AI-based applications across Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Sowa Rigpa, and Homoeopathy.
These also include diagnostic support systems that merge traditional practices such as pulse reading, tongue analysis, and Prakriti assessment with machine learning algorithms and deep neural networks.
Among these breakthroughs showcased is Ayurgenomics, which is an emerging scientific discipline that basically integrates genomics with the ancient Ayurvedic principles.
This field aims to identify predictive disease markers and provide personalised health advice by analysing Ayurvedic constitution types with AI tools.
The WHO also highlights India’s research to decode the genomic and molecular foundations of herbal medicines for repurposing in modern disease treatment, bridging ancient knowledge with contemporary biomedical science.
India’s efforts to digitise traditional knowledge, such as the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, have been praised as a global benchmark for safeguarding and responsibly using indigenous medical heritage. AI-driven tools are now being deployed to catalogue and semantically analyse ancient texts, making traditional therapeutic wisdom more accessible than ever before.
Another area that has been commended by WHO in the report is the use of AI to identify drug action pathways which enables comparative studies across traditional systems like Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Unani, and even develop artificial chemical sensors to test traditional parameters like Rasa, Guna and Virya. These innovations help validate age-old formulations mentioned in the Ayurvedic Knowledge System with modern scientific rigour.
The WHO also did note India’s advances in digital platforms for online consultations, digital literacy initiatives for Ayush practitioners, and efforts to build interoperable systems that better integrate traditional and mainstream healthcare services.
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