With 101 million diabetics and 136 million pre-diabetics along with high prevalence of obesity and other cardiometabolic diseases, India is facing a major public health challenge in rural and urban areas, which need the health infrastructure to effectively diagnose and manage these conditions.
Healthier India is a challenge-based program designed to create a sustainable and scalable innovation platform focused on improving health equity and addressing the CMD burden in vulnerable populations through technology-driven solutions.
The program is implemented by the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), the startup incubator at IIT Delhi, with support from Government of India’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) as the Government partner, and AIIMS New Delhi as the Clinical partner. By fostering collaboration between government, industry, and academia, Healthier India will define pressing public health challenges and support the development and deployment of impactful innovations.
The program comprises two tracks:
- Pre-incubation track (3 months): Targeted young innovators, including students and PhD scholars.
- Accelerated incubation track (12 months): Targeted towards formalised startups.
Both tracks will feature bootcamps, masterclasses, and personalized mentorship from technical and business experts.
FITT is actively engaging with members of the Novo group—including Novo Nordisk, Novo Nordisk GBS, and Novo Holdings—as Knowledge Partners, along with other key industry and investment stakeholders.
Expected Outcomes:
- Strengthen industry-academia collaboration to accelerate solutions for CMD-related public health challenges.
- Build capacity among the next generation of health innovators.
- Deepen Indo-Danish partnerships in the innovation-for-impact space.
- Establish a platform for joint engineering and medical innovation to address pressing societal health issues.
