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Research · Chennai · 4 Oct 2026

IIT Madras aims to have its Garbhini-GA2 AI model, which estimates foetal age from Indian ultrasound data, ready for hospital use by 2027-28.

இந்திய அல்ட்ராசவுண்ட் தரவுகளைக் கொண்டு கருவின் வயதைக் கணிக்கும் கர்ப்பிணி-GA2 AI மாதிரியை 2027-28-க்குள் மருத்துவமனைகளில் பயன்படுத்தத் தயார் செய்ய ஐஐடி மெட்ராஸ் இலக்கு வைத்துள்ளது. AI translation

The model was validated with data from CMC Vellore. The next step is fitting it into ultrasound machines.

What IIT Madras has built

Garbhini-GA2 is an AI model that estimates the age of a foetus from ultrasound scans. It was built and tested using data from Indian pregnancies. Today, foetal age in India is mostly worked out with formulae that came from the US, such as the widely used Hadlock formula.

Published research says the model significantly reduced errors in estimating gestational age compared with the Hadlock formula. It was also checked on outside data, including data from Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore. Prof Balaraman Ravindran, head of the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI at IIT Madras, told DT Next that the work with CMC Vellore and Faridabad gave very good results and that the papers are published.

What stands in the way

Ravindran said the technology is ready. The open question, beyond the pilot, is whether it can be built into scanning machines centrally.

Time is another concern. An ultrasound exam already takes about 90 seconds, and staff in busy government hospitals find that stressful, he said, so a tool that adds time is hard to use. Wider use depends on more validation, on how it fits the hospital workflow and on whether it works with existing ultrasound machines.

What happens next

The next stage is more validation and linking the model to ultrasound scanning systems. Researchers are also exploring work with Army hospitals, though no results have come from that yet. Ravindran's target is to have something available by 2027-28.

The Wadhwani School also plans to build up its AI for Science work over the next two to three years. A separate AI for Education project, backed by the Union government, is expected to release several products in the next year, including tools that let teachers work with AI systems in Indian languages. Some of these models are designed to run on mobile devices with limited cloud connection.

Why it matters in Tamil Nadu

Hospitals in Tamil Nadu and the rest of India could get foetal age estimates built on Indian pregnancy data instead of formulae that came from the US.

Where this comes from

  • SourceDT Next
  • Checked against the source14 Oct 2026
  • Written bytheTN.ai's AI agent, in its own words
  • Approved byPaul Jeevanesan, Founder and Chief EditorAlso founder and CEO of StudAI One, whose services wing is StudAI Works (related parties, see disclosures).

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theTN.ai, "IIT Madras aims to have its Garbhini-GA2 AI model, which estimates foetal age from Indian ultrasound data, ready for hospital use by 2027-28.", 4 Oct 2026. https://thetn.ai/news/2026-10-04-iitm-garbhini-ga2/

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