KCDH-A Annual Day 2025
Koita Centre for Digital Health at Ashoka University (KCDH-A) celebrated its Annual Day, on 6th August 2025, bringing together Ashoka University leaderships and other departmental representatives, KCDH-A collaborators, partners, industry leaders, students and young innovators to reflect on our progress and deliberate on the future of digital health in India.
Launched in August 2023, KCDH-A is a unique interdisciplinary collaboration between the Koita Foundation and the Departments of Biosciences and Computer Science at Ashoka University. Now in its third year, the centre has emerged as a thought leader in shaping digital health policy and practice.
The 2025 Annual Day was a vibrant event combining thoughtful reflections and meaningful presentations. The opening sessions were focused on the journey of the centre and reviews on the initiatives and areas of growth. Prof. Somak Raychaudhury (Vice Chancellor) and Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha (Chairman, Board of Trustees), mapped out Ashoka’s vision for health innovation. Dr. Anurag Agrawal (Dean, BioSciences & Health Research; Head, KCDH-A) recapped the journey of KCDH-A, presenting its distinct identity, initiatives and vision for future collaboration and Mr. Rizwan Koita (Co-Founder, Koita Foundation) delivered an uplifting message about the role of donors and partners in this work. We also had a wonderful keynote on responsible AI in global health from Dr. Karthik Adapa (WHO-SEARO), and an invaluable presentation by Mr. Nitin Aggarwal (ZS Associates) on digital health transformation from an industry perspective.
Beyond the formal discussions, we also had rapid-fire presentations by KCDH-A Research Assistants. Mihir Chaturvedi presented a physician oriented, bias aware AI based system for ICU mortality prediction at the early phase of ICU admission. Suhani Daruka discussed the ramifications of immune fatigue during the resolution phase of ARDS. Mayukh Nair detailed the structure of the world’s first Ashoka Cohort for Health and Wellbeing. Aishwarya Nagdev spoke about community developed digital health interventions that indicate Health for All outlined by WHO. Gautam Ahuja presented his conversational mHealth app using language models and a rule based model to enhance the diagnosis of abdominal pain in OPD.
The event reaffirmed KCDH-A’s commitment to advancing Digital Health that will help design a more reflective, inclusive and sustainable future for Health Care.
World Health Summit Regional Meeting- 2025
The World Health Summit Regional Meeting 2025, hosted in April in New Delhi for the very first time, brought together global health leaders, researchers, policymakers, and innovators to engage with some of the most pressing health challenges of our time. As a proud co-host of the event, the Koita Centre for Digital Health – Ashoka University (KCDH-A) played an active role in shaping critical conversations at the intersection of health, technology, data, and education.
Over three days, KCDH–A led and contributed to a series of thought-provoking panel discussions that reflected its commitment to enabling a future-ready, inclusive, and ethically governed digital health ecosystem in India and beyond.
Ashoka Centres’ Workshop-2024
In December 2024, members of the KCDH-A team represented the centre at the Ashoka Centres’ Workshop. The event marked the first time all the centres at the university interacted with each other. KCDH-A got the opportunity to showcase itself to the larger Ashoka community, including representatives from other centres, students, and members from the Ashoka Founders’ team.
During the event, the team discussed its goals and achievements, and highlighted KCDH-A’s vision to help transforming India’s digital health future, receiving great response from Ashokans.
Digital Transformation for Health Lab, University of Geneva visit to Ashoka Campus
KCDH-A hosted the members of the Digital Transformation of Health Lab (DTH-Lab), University of Geneva for a two-day visit to campus in November 2024. The visit was attended by Aferdita Bytyqi, the Executive Director and Louise Holly, Research and Policy Coordinator. It was centred around discussing various aspects of digital health in India, and the global south.
CHIMERA: Datathon & Ideathon STEM Fest
We are proud to announce that the Koita Centre for Digital Health recently organized an exhilarating Datathon and Ideathon, at CHIMERA – IEEE’S Science Festival.
From decoding complex data sets to envisioning transformative digital health technologies, it was inspiring to witness the passion and creativity that unfolded throughout the event. Bright minds came together to innovate and ideate groundbreaking solutions for the future of digital health.
Both the events showed the potential of interdisciplinary thinking and sharing knowledge. We saw teams of students from different streams, interacting and working together to reach meaningful conclusions.
We want to say a massive thank you to all the participants, mentors, and organizers for making this event a resounding success!
QuizSoc: Chakraview
Chakraview, Ashoka University’s hallmark annual quizzing festival, proudly supported by the Koita Centre for Digital Health (KCDH-A), once again demonstrated its unique blend of intellectual challenge and engaging trivia. Renowned quizmaster Chandrakant Nair, sponsored by KCDH-A, captivated over 80 participants from prestigious institutions across and beyond DelhiNCR with his innovative and diverse questions. This event not only tested the contestants’ knowledge and wit but also highlighted their analytical and creative skills.
The festival showcased a variety of specialized segments such as MELA and SciEntTech, alongside a comprehensive general quiz, each designed to probe the depths of the participants’ knowledge across a wide spectrum of topics. These quizzes were not merely tests of memory but were crafted to foster analytical thinking and problem-solving, making Chakraview a standout event in the academic calendar of Ashoka University.
Through its collaboration with QuizSoc at Ashoka, KCDH-A continues to support and foster a culture of intellectual curiosity and innovation, enriching the educational experiences at Ashoka.
Equilibrium 2.0: PolicyGPT 2.0
Congratulations to the Ashoka Economics Society for the success of their annual fest Equilibrium! The Koita Centre for Digital Health- Ashoka was thrilled to sponsor Policy GPT 2.0, a flagship event organised as a part of Equilibrium 2.0.
The competition brought together over 50 students from Ashoka University and other universities from Delhi-NCR. 14 participating teams were given a problem statement at a national level and were asked to utilise secondary research and nationally representative datasets to identify key problem areas and suggest potential policy reform surrounding the same.
Round 1: Students were given the prompt, “Does unequal access to educational facilities create/promote regressive cultural behavioural patterns at a household level.” They were then tasked with finding secondary research and utilising the given nationally available data (in this case the NFHS) to look for a clear relationship to examine as proof. Teams submitted a document detailing the specific scope of research, secondary research that supported their hypothesis and specific variables of interest with their research strategy.
After the first round, 5 teams were shortlisted who went on to further examine the data and conduct research to find tangible empirical proof to support their hypothesis and recommend a policy measure detailing the specific measure they would want implemented and a plan of action surrounding the same. The teams presented their proposals to an esteemed panel of judges. The Top 3 teams were awarded cash prizes from a pool of ₹35,000, sponsored by the KCDH-A.
Kudos to all the participants for their hard work and a special shoutout to all the winners for their innovative ideas. We are proud to see the passion and spirit of teamwork in our future leaders! We look forward to collaborating with students and supporting more such initiatives in the future.
Vital Choices: The Cancer Walkathon
The Koita Centre for Digital Health-Ashoka collaborated with Global Shapers New Delhi to organise the first annual Walkathon at the Ashoka University campus on February 15th 2024 called Vital Choices: The Cancer Walkathon. Over 250 people joined this effort to raise awareness about cancer.
Participants of the 1st Edition of the 3K Cancer Walkathon joined the Call to Action and pledged to fight against cancer. Students also signed up to be a part of longer term-student led health movements. A panel discussion on “Vital Choices towards health” was also organised to empower youth to make informed decisions about their health and reduce the disease burden.
A huge thank you to all the participants, organising team, GSC Health Ambassadors and volunteers who made this event a resounding success!
KCDH-A: Now and Next
We are grateful to all the experts who joined us for “KCDH-A: Now and Next” – an event that embodied our collective vision to innovate and revolutionize Digital Health. This event provided an opportunity to share, learn, and collaborate towards a future where technology and healthcare converge seamlessly. The enriching discussions delved into the realms of Digital Health and explored collaborative avenues to shape the future of this transformative field. We hope that the key takeaways from this event will pave the way forward for Koita Centre for Digital Health – KCDH (Ashoka). This interactive session reaffirmed our commitment to advancing digital health initiatives, fostering collaborations, and engaging with the bright minds shaping the future.
KCDH X Ashoka University: A Discussion
On October 10, 2023, Ashoka University hosted a discussion session in collaboration with the newly established Koita Centre for Digital Health at Ashoka (KCDH-A). The event brought together prominent members of the centre, led by Dr. Anurag Agarwal, the Dean of Biosciences at the university and the founding director of KCDH-A. Additionally, key figures from the Koita Foundation participated, including Mr. Rizwan Koita and Rekha Koita, who serve as the co-founders of the Koita Foundation, and Surbhi Goel, the Chief Operating Officer of the Koita Foundation.
The discussion was enriched by the presence of faculty members from various departments, including Computer Sciences, Biology, and Psychology. The interdisciplinary gathering provided a platform for meaningful exchanges and collaboration among experts in the field of digital health and biosciences.
