Month: July 2025

Mental health remains one of the most invisible and underserved challenges in India, especially for adolescent girls. In a country where stigma is widespread and fewer than 1 trained mental health professional is available per 100,000 people, early intervention is often a distant reality. The barriers are not only socio-cultural but also structural, with limited access to care, predominantly English-language tools and a lack of scalable solutions.

In 2022, ACT For Health partnered with Wysa to explore whether technology could help bridge this critical gap. Our capital catalyzed Wysa, a globally recognized AI-based mental health chatbot, to adapt to Hindi and piloted across underserved communities including adolescent girls, women and blue-collar workers. The goal was to test through pilots whether tech-first solutions could offer meaningful emotional support to those excluded from traditional systems of care.

The results were compelling. Through strategic partnerships, Wysa’s Hindi application reached over 6,000 users across Bharat, many of whom were accessing mental health support for the first time. The users reported improved emotional well-being and high satisfaction, with a strong percentage returning to use the tool multiple times. The team learned that framing the offering around ‘resilience’ and ‘life skills’ worked better than a clinical lens, leading to a rebrand as Vyasa – Mann ka coach jo badle soch, a refreshed app experience and support for Indian languages beyond Hindi (e.g. Marathi). The pilot also unlocked a promising B2G pathway and validated a hybrid model, combining in-person onboarding with digital engagement, as key to driving adoption.

With promising proof points and a strong, mission-driven founding team committed to building for Bharat, ACT is backing Wysa’s next phase of growth: a scaled pilot reaching 20,000 adolescent girls across Maharashtra through partnerships with the state government and community-based organizations. This phase is not just about scaling usage but about demonstrating that timely, relevant and culturally rooted mental health care can be effectively delivered within public systems. In addition to funding, ACT will support Wysa on product development, implementation strategy and strengthening the ecosystem needed to build trust among users and public health stakeholders. 

This partnership aims to change how mental health support is perceived and delivered across India. By combining the power of localized technology with institutional partnerships, Wysa and ACT are working to ensure that every adolescent girl in Bharat has access to the care she needs when she needs it and in a way that feels safe and accessible. Together, we are taking steps toward a future where mental health is no longer a privilege, but a right for all!

Recognised by the UN as the world’s 50th Digital Public Good, CARE is an open-source digital platform developed by the Open Health Care Network and backed by ACT For Health since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Designed to help India manage the unprecedented strain on its public health infrastructure, CARE enabled the National Health Mission to coordinate care for over 355,000 patients, including 130,000 ambulance shifts and 200,000 telemedicine calls between March 2020 and May 2022. During the Delta wave, CARE powered the launch of 10BedICU, a smart ICU solution that made it possible to remotely leverage the expertise of critical care specialists nationwide and optimize ICU operations especially in remote geographies. Since then, 10BedICU has served over 100,000 patients across 10+ states.

CARE’s impact has reinforced our belief that open-source digital infrastructure can serve as a powerful foundation for India’s public health systems, but building the technology is only part of the equation. Achieving meaningful, sustainable impact in public health requires an equal focus on implementing such technologies, building the capacity to use them, and integrating them into existing systems to unlock scale. 

To scale across states and benefit more patients, we’re supporting eGov Foundation in scaling CARE’S Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) across 4 states – Karnataka, Assam, Manipur, and Jharkhand – as part of a five-year initiative to drive national adoption. 

Since its inception in 2003, eGov has proven its ability to scale digital infrastructure in close partnership with governments. Its successful implementation of the 10BedICU program has highlighted the effectiveness of CARE’s open-source architecture and  catalyzed interest in extending CARE beyond critical care in public healthcare, towards a comprehensive Health Management Information System (HMIS). Accelerated through a pilot supported by ACT, implemented by eGov and backed by participating state governments, the goal is to build a replicable, scalable model for HMIS deployment and lay the foundation for a responsive, data-driven and inclusive public healthcare system. 

Five years after COVID-19 first tested our public health infrastructure, this grant reflects both how far we have come and our renewed commitment to catalyzing the adoption of digital public goods that can act as the building blocks of India’s digital health stack!

India carries 28% of the world’s TB burden and yet, millions with symptoms go undiagnosed and untreated. While testing is free in the public health system and treatment adherence is strong (~89%), early detection remains the weakest link – fueling ongoing transmission, worsening outcomes, and stalling progress. Initiatives like the 100-day campaign and active case finding show intent, but diagnosis still lags, especially in low-resource, peripheral areas. Existing screening tools such as microscopy are often unreliable, inaccessible, or unfit for scale, and frontline workers are overstretched. With the government bearing testing costs, the need for smarter, cost-effective screening solutions has never been more urgent.

This has sparked demand for low-cost, open, and interoperable systems that can leverage the diagnostic infrastructure developed during COVID, to decentralize screening and point of care testing solutions that can fuel last mile, decentralized testing in low resource settings, without driving up costs.

Founded by Dr. Rachana Tripathi and Dr. Shesheer Kumar, seasoned molecular biologists with deep expertise in affordable RT-PCR and POC diagnostics, Huwel is a next-gen molecular diagnostics company deploying a dual-platform strategy to make TB detection faster, easier, and accessible at the last mile. With over two decades of combined experience and a track record of building indigenous diagnostic solutions, the founders are spearheading efforts to bridge the gap between lab-grade accuracy and field-ready accessibility. Huwel’s approach aims to strengthen early case detection, reduce diagnostic delays, and support India’s goal of TB elimination by 2025.

QuantiPlus is Huwel’s ICMR-validated, extraction-free molecular test that runs on any RT-PCR device and delivers rapid, sample-agnostic results. UniAmp is the portable, fully integrated device built for point-of-care use that detects TB from any sample without lab dependency. Together, the two allow TB to be tested for and identified within an hour. Both the solutions have been validated by ICMR and recommended for national use by the Central TB Division. With a proven track record in infectious disease diagnostics like HCV and COVID-19, Huwel brings deep molecular biology expertise and products designed to scale across both public health programs and decentralized field settings. 

ACT’s grant to Huwel will support a pilot across four high-burden states – Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, and Uttarakhand – to evaluate the feasibility of decentralized TB screening in real-world public health settings. This effort brings together Huwel’s diagnostic innovation with CHRI’s field implementation expertise and strong government partnerships. The grant will enable comprehensive training and handholding for ASHAs, PHC staff, and other frontline workers to integrate the solution into daily workflows. CHRI will lead field operations, ensure quality delivery, track outcomes, and liaise with state and district health systems. With per-test costs up to 80–90% lower than existing solutions, this pilot has the potential to dramatically improve affordability for low-income states, expand TB screening reach, and build the case for integrating decentralized tools into the National TB Elimination Programme.

ACT For Health is proud to back Huwel’s high-impact innovation and support this collaboration with CHRI and the pilot states – combining scientific innovation with implementation excellence to strengthen India’s TB response where it’s needed most!