Icons of Industry Recognizes Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta as a Healthcare Icon 2026

NEW YORK, NY — Icons of Industry today announced that Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Chairman of the Digital First Foundation, Health Parliament, and Project CREATE, has been recognized as a Healthcare Icon 2026 for his leadership in shaping health and digital policy, and for his work to ensure artificial intelligence serves people and not the other way around.

Dr. Gupta’s policy work spans national governments and global institutions. In May 2026, the United Nations Secretary-General appointed him to the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of the UN Internet Governance Forum, which shapes the program of the world’s leading multistakeholder forum on digital policy. He previously served as Advisor to India’s Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare from 2016 to 2018 and contributed to the country’s National Health Policy 2017. In 2019, the Office of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh invited him to contribute to that country’s artificial intelligence policy framework, and he has served as a member of the WHO Global Roster of Experts on Digital Health and a WHO Guideline Development Group.

The recognition comes as the rules that will govern artificial intelligence in healthcare are being written in health ministries, at the World Health Organization, and in United Nations forums. The WHO and World Bank’s 2025 Universal Health Coverage Global Monitoring Report estimates that 4.6 billion people, more than half the world’s population, still lack access to essential health services. Digital health and AI offer a credible path to closing that gap at scale, but only if the systems built around them are designed for the people furthest from care.

As part of this recognition, Dr. Gupta is featured in an exclusive Icons of Industry Leadership Conversation, “Governing AI for Billions,” where he shares his perspective on global AI governance, the digital economy, job creation, digital health, and building health systems that reach everyone.

In the feature, Dr. Gupta explains why global AI governance must begin with the people who are not yet connected, and introduces the Functional AI Pyramid, his five-level maturity model that helps organizations, industries, and governments match AI autonomy with the right level of oversight. He also discusses lessons from taking digital health from policy to practice at national scale, how technology can multiply the reach of a global health workforce facing a projected shortfall of 11 million workers by 2030, why patients need their own institutions as AI enters clinical care, and how Project CREATE is working to turn “Internet for All” into “Livelihood for All.”

Dr. Gupta will also be featured in the upcoming Healthcare Icons Times Square Showcase in New York City, celebrating leaders whose vision and contributions continue to shape the future of healthcare.

About Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta: Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta is Chairman of the Digital First Foundation, Health Parliament, and Project CREATE, and a member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum. A builder of institutions, he founded the Health Parliament, the Academy of Digital Health Sciences, the International Patients’ Union, the Disease Management Association of India, and the Digital First Foundation. He leads the IGF Dynamic Coalitions on Digital Health, Digital Economy, and Environment, chairs the Commonwealth AI Consortium’s capacity-building work, and has served on the board of the International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth. He is the creator of the Functional AI Pyramid and the author of five books, including Digital Health – Truly Transformational.

About Health Parliament: Health Parliament is a global executive think tank for health, accessible across 193 countries and committed to translating ideas into action. It has published more than 50 reports, hosted the Public Health Transformation Summit, and convenes decision-makers across sectors and geographies to develop leadership and shape forward-looking health policy. Its flagship initiative, the Global Commission for 21st Century Healthcare (GC21CH), is working to design a healthcare system that is preventive, people-centred, digitally enabled, and equitable.

About Project CREATE: Project CREATE (Collaborate to Realize Employment and Entrepreneurship for All Through Technology Ecosystem) was launched on November 30, 2022, at the 17th United Nations Internet Governance Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with the vision of turning “Internet for All” into “Livelihood for All.” The initiative builds a global framework to ensure technology creates entrepreneurs, enterprises, and dignified livelihoods, and has developed sector job maps showing how technology can create jobs, not just displace them.

About Icons of Industry: Icons of Industry is an editorial recognition platform dedicated to celebrating leaders whose vision, leadership, and lasting contributions are shaping the future of major industries. Through executive profiles, in-depth leadership conversations, original editorial features, and global recognition experiences, Icons of Industry documents the people and ideas driving meaningful change across healthcare, technology, retail, financial services, manufacturing, and other sectors.

Media Contact: Ushna K, Editorial Director, Icons of Industry — info@iconsofindustry.com — www.IconsOfIndustry.com

“Few leaders have worked on the problem of making AI and digital health serve everyone from as many directions as Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, from national health policy to the United Nations. His insistence that technology must reach the people furthest from care, and create livelihoods rather than widen divides, is exactly the kind of leadership healthcare needs as the rules for AI are written. It is this sustained, global contribution that makes him a deserving Healthcare Icon.” — Sunil Kumar, Editor, Icons of Industry