PSA launches community mental-health digital platform

The Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India

Prof. K VijayRaghavan has virtually launched ‘MANAS’ App to promote wellbeing across age groups. MANAS, which stands for Mental

Health and Normalcy Augmentation System, was endorsed as a national programme by the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC). MANAS is a comprehensive, scalable, and national digital wellbeing platform and an app developed to augment mental well-being of Indian citizens. MANAS App integrates the health and wellness efforts of various government ministries, scientifically validated indigenous tools with gamified interfaces developed/researched by various national bodies and research institutions. MANAS was initiated by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. It was jointly executed by National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) Bengaluru, Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) Pune and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, (C-DAC) Bengaluru. The app is intended to be integrated with the public health schemes like the National Health Mission, Poshan Abhiyan, e-Sanjeevani and others so that it is used widely.