The Health & Life Sciences Innovation Award
Health technology is judged here on the clinical or patient outcome, not the interface. This category covers devices, diagnostics, digital health, hospital systems and life-sciences work where the evidence and the regulatory path are part of the innovation.
- Independent jury
- 250
- Innovations evaluated
- 4,500+
- Star rating
- 1–5
- Running since
- 2010
Academics, scientists, officials, investors
Across seventeen editions
Every nominee earns an AGBA Innovation Star
India’s longest-running innovation award
Three categories sit close to data. This is the one about method and evidence.
Most nominations that fail here fail because they were in the wrong category. Read across before you write anything.
Innovation in Health & Life Sciences
Devices, diagnostics, digital health and life sciences, judged on clinical evidence.
This category
Innovation in Industry AI
Vertical AI, including clinical decision support built for one specialty.
Innovation in IoT
Connected devices and sensing, including remote monitoring hardware.
Who should enter
- Medical devices and diagnostics with validation or regulatory clearance
- Digital health, telemedicine and remote monitoring with patient outcome data
- Hospital and clinical workflow systems judged on time, safety or access
- Pharmaceutical, biotech and life-sciences research moving toward the clinic
- Public and preventive health programmes reaching populations that lacked access
What this award recognises is a patient or a clinician who is better off — earlier detection, fewer errors, care reached where it was not. Engagement metrics are not clinical evidence.
If the innovation is a clinical model or vertical AI system, enter Innovation in Industry AI. If it is the connected device layer, enter Innovation in IoT.
What the jury looks for
- Problem definition & market opportunityWhether the innovation solves a real problem, backed by evidence and a measurable impact on its target audience.
- InnovativenessNovelty and uniqueness — new technology, functionality or business model — measured against what already exists, including IP.
- Market potential & impactSize and growth of the addressable market, competitive landscape, and scalability across geographies.
- Social impact & sustainabilityContribution to society and the environment, including social responsibility and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
These are the same four criteria — problem definition, innovativeness, market impact and social/sustainability impact — used to assess every category. In this category the jury also weighs methodological rigour — including what you did to avoid fooling yourselves — the decision that changed as a result and what it was worth, the reproducibility and honesty of the evaluation, and the engineering quality of the data foundation underneath. Read the full evaluation criteria.
Who judges this category
Nominations are assessed by an independent jury, not by the organisers. Jurors are matched to the categories where their expertise lies. These are among those who read health technology and life sciences entries.
Dr. Harpreet SinghScientist and Head, Division of Biomedical Informatics, ICMR
Dr. Anandhi RamachandranProfessor, International Institute of Health Management Research, Delhi
Dr. Rakesh Kumar SrivastavaFormer Director General of Health Services, Government of India
Dr. Mathew VargheseHead of Orthopaedics, St Stephens Hospital and public health expert
Dr. Arun Pulikkottil JoseHead, BRIDGE Centre for Digital Health
Prof. Palok AichProfessor, School of Biological Sciences, NISER
Dr. Rathinavelan ThenmalarchelviProfessor, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Hyderabad
Dr. Jitendra KumarManaging Director, Bangalore Bioinnovation CentreEight of roughly 250. The full panel spans the IITs, the IIMs, the IIITs, the Indian School of Business, NITI Aayog and central ministries, the Department of Science & Technology, MeitY and CERT-In. See the full jury panel.
Care on the podium
Health technology and life sciences run as neighbouring awards in the recent editions. These are among the most recent winners, photographed at the ceremony.
Previous winners
Health has been recognised as HealthTech, Healthcare and Life Sciences across the editions, sometimes as more than one award in the same year. The complete record sits in the winners archive.
Category names have changed across editions as the field has moved; the rows above are the closest equivalents in the published record. See the winners archive for the full 1st–16th edition history.
What happens after you submit
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Stage one · nowNomination registration
Register your company and category through the nomination process, then complete the detailed nomination form and processing fee.
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Stage twoJury presentation
Present the innovation to the jury and take questions. Jurors score each entry against the four evaluation criteria and rank it within its category.
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Stage threeStar Certification
Nominees are also assessed for AGBA Innovation Star Certification, an independent maturity rating alongside the category judging.
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Stage fourFinalists announced
Once every category has been evaluated, finalists are announced on the website ahead of the ceremony.
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Stage fiveAward ceremony
Winners are honoured on 18 February 2027 at Hotel Ashoka, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.
Before you write your nomination
Do we need regulatory clearance to enter?
No, but say where you are in the pathway. Cleared, in trial, or pre-submission are all readable positions; silence about it is not.
What counts as clinical evidence?
Outcome data with a defined cohort and comparison — detection rates, complications, time to treatment, adherence. Usage statistics on their own do not.
Is a hospital operations system eligible?
Yes. Workflow, scheduling and safety systems are read here when the benefit reaches patients or clinicians measurably.
How do I submit a nomination?
Nominations are submitted through the nomination process, which sets out the stages, the supporting material required and the current edition’s dates.
Put your evidence in front of the panel
Nominations for the Health and Life Sciences Innovation Award are read by an independent jury of clinicians, scientists and health administrators. Bring the outcome data and the regulatory position.