Health
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India's health-scheme architecture rests on a "cradle to insurance card" logic: schemes for safe childbirth and immunisation (JSY, Mission Indradhanush), nutrition in the earliest years (POSHAN Abhiyaan), and — for the population as a whole — catastrophic health-expenditure protection through insurance (Ayushman Bharat/PM-JAY). All fall under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, with POSHAN Abhiyaan run jointly with Women & Child Development.
| Scheme | Year | Ministry | One-liner objective |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) | 2005 | Health & Family Welfare | Cash assistance to promote institutional (hospital) delivery and reduce maternal/infant mortality |
| National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) | 2005 | Health & Family Welfare | Strengthen rural healthcare infrastructure and outcomes (later broadened into NHM in 2013) |
| Mission Indradhanush | 2014 | Health & Family Welfare | Accelerate full immunisation coverage for children and pregnant women against 12 diseases |
| Ayushman Bharat — Health & Wellness Centres (HWCs) | 2018 | Health & Family Welfare | Upgrade sub-centres/PHCs into comprehensive primary-care centres (renamed Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, 2023) |
| Ayushman Bharat — Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) | 2018 | Health & Family Welfare | Cashless health insurance cover of ₹5 lakh/family/year for the poorest ~40% of households |
| POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) | 2018 | Women & Child Development | Reduce stunting, undernutrition, anaemia, and low birth weight among children and women |
| Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) | 2021 | Health & Family Welfare | Create a unique digital health ID and interoperable health records for every citizen |
| PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) | 2021 | Health & Family Welfare | Build long-term pandemic-resilient public health infrastructure (labs, critical care blocks) |
Ayushman Bharat, launched on 23 September 2018 in Ranchi, is genuinely two schemes bundled under one umbrella brand — a fact that is itself a favourite exam distinction. The Health & Wellness Centre pillar upgrades existing primary health infrastructure (renamed Ayushman Arogya Mandirs in 2023 — see the Renamed Schemes section); the PM-JAY pillar is the insurance component, often called "the world's largest government-funded health assurance scheme," covering roughly 12 crore poor and vulnerable families (about 55 crore individuals) identified via the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 database, with no cap on family size or age.
Janani Suraksha Yojana, launched under the National Rural Health Mission in 2005, was designed to push childbirth out of homes and into institutions by paying a cash incentive to the mother (and to the ASHA worker who facilitates the delivery) — differentiated by state (higher payouts in "low-performing states") and by rural/urban residence. Mission Indradhanush targets children and pregnant women who missed routine immunisation under the Universal Immunisation Programme, run in "special intensified" phases (Mission Indradhanush 2.0, 3.0) to close specific coverage gaps identified district-by-district. POSHAN Abhiyaan is distinctive for being run jointly across ministries and states with a technology-driven convergence approach (ICDS/Anganwadi data feeding a real-time dashboard) rather than a single cash-transfer mechanism.
Memory hook — "JIM-PA": Janani, Indradhanush, Mission (Ayushman), POSHAN, ABDM. A quick five-scheme roll call in rough chronological order: JSY (2005, safe birth) → Indradhanush (2014, immunise the child) → Ayushman Bharat/PM-JAY (2018, insure the family) → POSHAN Abhiyaan (2018, nourish the child) → ABDM (2021, digitise the record).
Practice Recall: Before reading on, name the two distinct "pillars" bundled under the Ayushman Bharat umbrella, and which one is the insurance component.
Answer: Health & Wellness Centres (primary-care infrastructure upgrade, renamed Ayushman Arogya Mandir in 2023) and Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana or PM-JAY (the ₹5-lakh cashless insurance cover) — PM-JAY is the insurance pillar.