Award · Healthcare & Life Sciences

Wadhwani AI wins global challenge for diabetic retinopathy tool

By Startup Enthusiast · 23 February 2026

What they do

Wadhwani AI is a not-for-profit institute working in health, agriculture and education

It won the 'AI for ALL: Global Impact Challenge' at India AI Impact Summit 2026 for MadhuNetrAI

MadhuNetrAI has screened over 10,000 patients across 40 healthcare facilities in 11 states

Wadhwani AI and AIIMS New Delhi won the 'AI for ALL: Global Impact Challenge' at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.
The award was for MadhuNetrAI, an AI tool that detects diabetic retinopathy from retinal images.
The challenge drew over 4,600 applications from more than 60 countries.
MadhuNetrAI was developed under the guidance of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The tool supports frontline healthcare workers like nurses and optometrists in grading and triaging cases.
It has processed around 20,000 retinal images and screened more than 10,000 patients.
The tool identified over 3,000 referable cases and flagged more than 1,000 instances of vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy.

India has over 101 million people with diabetes, making diabetic retinopathy a major public health issue.
MadhuNetrAI is deployed across 40 healthcare facilities covering 21 districts in 11 states.
The win highlights the growing role of AI in India's public health screening programs.

Wadhwani AI is a not-for-profit institute working across health, agriculture, and education.
MadhuNetrAI analyses retinal fundus images to detect and classify severity of diabetic retinopathy.
It supports frontline healthcare workers like nurses, optometrists, and community health officers.
The tool helps in image grading and triaging referable cases to specialists.
It was developed in partnership with AIIMS Delhi and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The next step is deeper integration with national non-communicable disease screening frameworks under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.