NHA, GeM, and public sector banks leverage AWS solutions to accelerate digital services in India

Amazon Web Services (AWS) India Private Limited, on 25th September, announced that the National Health Authority (NHA), Government e-Marketplace (GeM), and Public Sector Bank Alliance (PSBA) are adopting AWS technology to build innovative, scalable, and secure solutions to drive India’s digital transformation journey.

Supporting NHA’s mission to create an open digital health ecosystem 

The NHA is building on AWS to transform healthcare at a population scale and establish an open digital health ecosystem in India. It aims to build integrated digital health infrastructure in India for 1.4 billion citizens and provide health coverage to more than 550 million citizens through the Government of India’s flagship schemes including Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) and Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). 

The NHA is leveraging the power of AWS services to build core modules of the AB-PMJAY program–critical applications like Beneficiary Identification System and Transaction Management System–to manage beneficiary identification, and claim transaction management in a scalable, agile, and secure manner. Till now, over 354 million Ayushman cards have been issued and more than 30 thousand hospitals are empaneled. Besides, the PMJAY has covered more than 68 million hospitalisations across 25 states and eight union territories.

Empowering GeM to build the world’s largest public procurement platform

The Government e-Marketplace (GeM), the world’s second largest public procurement platform, is using AWS for its robust, scalable, and secure cloud infrastructure. GeM enables transparency, efficiency, and inclusivity in the public procurement domain (both goods and services) by government organisations and the public sector. AWS cloud services form the backbone of GeM’s e-procurement features like direct purchasing, bidding, reverse auctions, price matching, demand aggregation, as well as supporting the marketplace, business operations, analysis, customer support, and payment processing. 

GeM enables 9,000 page views per second, 1.5 million interactions each day, and a daily transaction average of nearly ₹1,000 crore in gross merchandise value. GeM has a technology vision to digitise, automate, and transform its platform to improve efficiency, and enhance user experience, and is deploying artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI to provide customer-centric services and enable users to take data-driven decisions.

Cloud services for India’s public sector banks

In addition, the PSBA—an umbrella organisation formed by 12 public sector banks—has empaneled AWS to offer flexible and optimised cloud computing services to India’s public sector banks. The PSBA provides important customer-oriented services as envisaged in the government’s Enhanced Access and Service Excellence (EASE) agenda.

Viksit Bharat 2047

At the AWS Empower India event in New Delhi on 25th Septemeber, the cloud provider shared these examples of supporting public sector customers in the country. The theme for this year’s event was Viksit Bharat 2047, which represents the Indian government’s vision to transform the nation into a developed entity by the centenary of its Independence (2047).

Delivering the keynote at the event, Dr Werner Vogels, Chief Technology Officer, Amazon.com, said, “Many of our customers, from small startups to large enterprises, are seeking ways to maximise their cloud investments and minimise waste. This is especially crucial in India, where the challenge is to build scalable, efficient digital systems serving 1.4 billion people.”

“The Frugal Architect approach offers core principles for building cost-aware, sustainable, and modern architectures, turning constraints into catalysts for innovation. I am inspired by how builders and organisations in India are poised to embrace these principles, creating innovative solutions that not only address immediate challenges but also lay the foundation for sustainable, long-term growth,” he added. 

While addressing the audience, Pankaj Gupta, Leader – Public Sector, AWS India Private Limited highlighted, “India’s public sector is laying the foundation to achieve the government’s vision of a Viksit Bharat 2047, by developing population-scale initiatives, building on cloud and AI technology. Transformative innovations in our government, healthcare, and education segments, for example, are strengthening India’s potential as a Digital Nation, and to become a technology sandbox for the world.”

“At AWS, we are fortunate to co-innovate with our customers to help them achieve their missions—whether it is delivering better healthcare, improving access to quality education, enhancing financial inclusion, or improving business prospects of small businesses and startups,” he said.

Pankaj brought to light certain success stories during hos deliberation. He pointed out how the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) runs its citizen-scale skilling platform called Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH) on AWS. SIDH is intended to serve 800 million users across India to create a skilled workforce, and contribute towards the government’s goal of a fully developed India.

The Swachchata App by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), the speaker highlighted, is a mobile-based grievance redressal application, supporting the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission. It uses advanced AWS technologies for powering real-time geographic information system (GIS), analytics-based dashboards, business intelligence, Internet-of-Things (IoT), and drone-based monitoring of sanitation assets.

Co-WIN was another gamechanger example of AWS implementation in India. Besides powering Co-WIN, enabling seamless registration, real-time vaccination status tracking, and certificate generation for millions, AWS also powers DigiLocker, which provides citizens anytime and anywhere access to authentic digital documents.

Edtech leader PhysicsWallah had also joined hands with AWS to have them as their key technology enabler. It provides them the cloud computing foundation necessary to build, experiment, and transform their solutions to deliver high-quality online and offline learning experiences for millions of students, and grow their businesses.

Investing in India’s digital future

AWS has made a significant commitment to India’s digital future, investing more than $3.7 billion between 2016 and 2022 in its cloud infrastructure to drive innovation and enable local businesses and organisations across the country. Building on this foundation, AWS plans to invest an additional $12.7 billion in its cloud infrastructure in India by 2030, further solidifying its role as a key enabler of India’s technology growth. This combined investment represents one of the largest in India’s tech sector, aimed at supporting the nation’s transformation into a global digital powerhouse.