ICICI Foundation For Inclusive Growth (ICICI Foundation), the CSR arm of ICICI Bank, has partnered with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur to develop a state-of-the-art Digital Health Stack.
The initiative, named ICICI Digital Health Stack (ICICI-DHS), aims to fortify India’s public healthcare systems by combining technology, medical research, and innovation. To support this initiative, ICICI Foundation has pledged Rs 34 crore to IIT Kanpur.
To take the development further, IIT Kanpur has set up a dedicated Innovation Lab on its campus. This lab was inaugurated by Pradeep Kumar Sinha, Chairman, ICICI Bank in the presence of Rakesh Jha, Executive Director, ICICI Bank and Prof. Manindra Agarwal, Director, IIT Kanpur.
Envisioned as a modular, scalable and open digital platform, ICICI-DHS will address evolving healthcare challenges by integrating digital tools and systems. The initiative will focus on:
A notable early application of ICICI-DHS was the development of the Real Time Bed Availability and Referral Portal (RT-BARP), deployed during the recent Maha Kumbh Mela. This portal helped the health department in bed booking, ambulance discovery and referral co-ordination ensuring timely medical assistance for lakhs of pilgrims.
Prof. Manindra Agarwal, Director, IIT Kanpur, said, “Through this project of ICICI Digital Health Stack that we initiated last year, we aim to develop deployable technology for complete evidence-based, implementable, person-focused and digitally enabled healthcare delivery for all in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It is my pleasure to mention that as part of this initiative our team developed Real Time Bed Availability and Referral Portal (RT-BARP) which was successfully deployed during the Maha Kumbh 2025, ensuring better preparedness and improved medical accessibility during the event. We are grateful to ICICI foundation for the generous support.”
