NHA opens secure health-data lab as ABDM turns five

India's biggest store of public health records is getting a locked research room. At Arogya Manthan 2026 in New Delhi on Friday, the National Health Authority (NHA) launched a Secure Data Environment (SDE) that will let approved entities study data from Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) without the raw records ever leaving NHA's control.

The event marked eight years of PM-JAY and five years of ABDM, and Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda used it to put numbers on the digital side of the programme. More than 97.8 crore Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) IDs have been created, he said, with over 121 crore health records linked. More than 5.6 lakh health facilities and about 11 lakh healthcare professionals are registered on the ABDM network.

How the Secure Data Environment will work

The SDE was built by NHA with support from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. According to the health ministry, approved entities will either work with de-identified data or run their own code inside an isolated NHA environment. Outputs are reviewed before anything is released.

That design is the important part. Instead of handing datasets to researchers or companies, the agency keeps the data where it is and lets vetted users bring their analysis to it. NHA CEO Sunil Kumar Barnwal said PM-JAY alone has generated more than 13 crore patient records, and that the SDE would allow responsible use of this material while protecting patient identities.

The ministry lists health research, programme planning, outcome analysis and "responsible AI innovation" as intended uses. It has not yet published who qualifies as an approved entity, what the application process looks like or whether private firms will be charged for access. Those details will decide whether the SDE becomes a working research tool or a showcase.

Other launches, and the claims push

Several other digital pieces were released alongside. They include a National Healthcare Providers Registry (NHPR) mobile app, an implementation guide for insurers joining the National Health Claims Exchange (NHCX), a guidebook for a model digital health facility and a framework for auto-adjudication of PM-JAY claims.

Auto-adjudication is aimed at a well-known pain point: slow claim processing. Barnwal said the framework is meant to streamline and strengthen claim decisions using technology and data. The release does not say what share of claims will be decided automatically, or how disputed cases will be escalated.

IRDAI Chairman Ajay Seth pushed for wider use of shared building blocks in health insurance, naming ABHA as an identity for insurance, codified treatments, standard billing formats and standard treatment protocols. He also pointed to NHCX as the piece that could make insurers and hospitals interoperable.

Dr M. Srinivas, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, stressed wider ABHA adoption and interoperable records, with citizen consent and safeguards. He said standardised, high-quality health data will be critical if India wants to use AI responsibly in healthcare.

On the scheme side, Nadda said PM-JAY now covers more than 60 crore beneficiaries and has funded over 13 crore hospital admissions worth more than Rs 2 lakh crore. Barnwal put the number of Ayushman cards at over 49 crore.

The awards segment recognised states for ABDM work too. Bihar, Ladakh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli were named top performers across model districts, while Chandigarh, Assam and Uttar Pradesh were recognised for sub-centres using ABDM-enabled health management systems.

For patients, nothing changes overnight. For researchers and health-tech startups, the SDE is the launch to watch, provided NHA publishes clear access rules soon.