Deadline Date: January 31, 2026
Roche Pharma India, in collaboration with Startup India, DPIIT proudly presents the Roche Drishti HealthTech Challenge to strengthen India’s innovation ecosystem and advance transformative solutions in healthcare.
The initiative seeks to identify and co-develop innovative digital and technological solutions that enhance patient support, health system strengthening, ecosystem development, and data analytics through scalable technologies. Its overarching vision is to create a collaborative innovation ecosystem that addresses critical gaps in retinal screening, diagnosis, and care delivery, ultimately improving retinal health outcomes across India.
The challenge invites startups to propose solutions that enable early and accurate retinal screening at the community or primary care level. Ideal approaches include AI-driven image analysis to identify high-risk patients, teleophthalmology, or smartphone-based fundus and OCT tools. Additionally, proposed solutions should digitize and automate referral pathways, ensuring seamless coordination between Health & Wellness Centres, district hospitals, and tertiary eye institutes. Integration with national digital health platforms such as ABDM, eSanjeevani, or NPCDCS registries is encouraged to enable longitudinal patient tracking, data interoperability, and improved follow-up adherence.
Startups are encouraged to innovate across two critical areas: AI-enabled early screening, referral, and treatment pathways for retinal diseases, and the development of a unified, interoperable platform for real-world evidence generation integrated with existing hospital EMRs. The program offers significant incentives, including INR 35 lakhs awarded to the winner of each problem statement, along with the opportunity to co-develop and pilot solutions in partnership with Roche India.
Eligible applicants include early-stage and growth-stage startups with potential for scale-up and commercialization. Startups must be registered with DPIIT/Startup India and led by Indian nationals seeking access to technology and expert mentorship. This challenge provides a unique opportunity for startups in AI, digital health, and data analytics to contribute to high-impact, scalable innovations and help shape the future of India’s retinal care ecosystem.
For more information, visit Startup India.
