Health missions that matter: Ayushman Bharat, NHM and beyond

If sj-14 mapped the architecture of Indian healthcare (the spending, the National Health Policy 2017 targets and the equity gaps), this article maps the action: the flagship interventions the state actually runs. Since 2005, India has stacked mission upon mission on a weak base of public health spending: the National Rural Health Mission made frontline workers a household name, Ayushman Bharat attempted the world's largest health-insurance experiment, and a new generation of digital, sanitation and pandemic programmes now claims to integrate them all. This article tracks what these missions do, what they have achieved and where they stall, for GS-II and prelims.

A note on evidence: coverage figures below come from three coaching compilations of government releases and all agree on the anchor numbers (Rs 5 lakh PM-JAY cover, the 62.6-to-39.4 percent fall in out-of-pocket spending). Where sources disagree on headline counts (Ayushman cards, Arogya Mandir numbers), the conservative, cross-verified figure is used and shaky 2026 claims are flagged rather than asserted.

Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY: the insurance pillar

Launched in 2018, Ayushman Bharat is described in the sources as one of the world's largest publicly funded health insurance programmes, with two pillars. The first pillar is the Health and Wellness Centres for comprehensive primary care, renamed Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (AAMs) in 2023. The second is Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), the insurance arm. Its design is unusually generous on paper: Rs 5 lakh cover per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation, no restriction on family size, age or gender, all pre-existing conditions covered from day one, and cashless treatment at over 27,000 empanelled public and private hospitals.

The reported scale is large: around 55 crore intended beneficiaries from the poorest 40 percent of families, 35.4 crore Ayushman cards issued and 7.79 crore hospital admissions authorised. Two figures matter politically: 49 percent of cards went to women, and the government claims a 21 percent reduction in out-of-pocket spending attributable to the scheme. That is consistent with the broader National Health Accounts trend (out-of-pocket share falling from 62.6 percent in 2014-15 to 39.4 percent), though insurance expansion is only part of that story. The biggest expansion since launch extended PM-JAY to all citizens aged 70 and above with a Rs 5 lakh top-up cover, expected to benefit around 6 crore senior citizens; related Vay Vandana cards are reported in the millions, a figure sources state with varying dates, so treat exact counts cautiously.

The CAG audit and subsequent reviews punctured the success narrative. Findings included database errors with invalid beneficiary records, infrastructure shortcomings in empanelled hospitals, financial irregularities including fake claims, implementation delays and sharp geographical disparity in utilisation (southern states use the scheme far more than northern ones). An expert committee under V. K. Paul of NITI Aayog was constituted in 2024 to review PM-JAY and recommend reforms. The deeper structural critique comes from NITI Aayog itself: the "missing middle" of around 40 crore Indians who are too well off for PM-JAY but too poor for private cover, and the fact that outpatient care, diagnostics and medicines, which drive the bulk of out-of-pocket spending, are not covered by most insurance products. For prelims, note the pattern: India's insurance push scores on hospitalisation but misses the everyday care that actually impoverishes households.

The National Health Mission and the frontline workforce

The National Health Mission is the umbrella programme that carries the National Health Policy 2017's goals to the states, operating as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with differential financing for high-focus states. Its visible backbone is the frontline workforce. ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists), launched in 2005 under the National Rural Health Mission, number 10.4 lakh across rural India: one per 1,000 population, selected from the community and trained on basic health, paid through performance-based incentives rather than a fixed salary. Their work spans maternal health, immunisation, family planning, TB and malaria, and now non-communicable diseases; they were recognised with the WHO Global Health Leaders Award in 2022 and carried the COVID-19 vaccination and surveillance drive. The demand for regular salaries, rather than incentives, is their long-standing grievance.

Arogya Mandirs are the other NHM instrument. The target was 1.5 lakh AAMs by 2025; reported operational counts range from around 1.7 lakh to over 1.85 lakh across sources, so treat the exact number as fluid. They provide 12 comprehensive primary healthcare services (maternal and child health, NCDs, mental health, eye care, elderly care), are staffed by Community Health Officers as mid-level providers (1.25 lakh CHOs deployed since 2018), dispense free essential drugs and diagnostics, and link to eSanjeevani telemedicine. The Srinath Reddy Committee (2011) logic applies: at least 70 percent of the health budget should go to primary care, because primary care prevents costly tertiary interventions and reduces out-of-pocket spending by catching disease early.

The related infrastructure push is PM-ABHIM (PM-Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission), aimed at building critical-care hospital blocks and public health units, especially in districts with weak facilities. Mission Indradhanush targets full immunisation coverage above 90 percent, digitised through the U-WIN portal that sends automated vaccine reminders; rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram screens children aged 0 to 18 for the "4 Ds" (defects, diseases, deficiencies and developmental delays).

Maternal and reproductive health: the mission stack

RKSK is the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram, the Health Ministry's adolescent-health programme covering nutrition, mental health, substance abuse and sexual and reproductive health through peer educators. It matters because adolescence is where the life-course approach to health either holds or breaks: anaemic adolescents become anaemic mothers, and the maternal outcomes above are partly written here.

The infant and neonatal trend completes the maternal picture: India's infant mortality rate fell from about 129 in 1971 to 28 by 2020 (Sample Registration System), and the neonatal mortality rate to 22. The composition has shifted: neonatal deaths now dominate infant mortality, which is why programmes such as facility-based newborn care and home-based newborn care target the first 28 days of life specifically. For mains answers, the IMR/NMR trajectory is the standard evidence that public-health missions moved outcomes, not just inputs.

Maternal health is where mission-mode governance has its clearest success story. The maternal mortality ratio fell to 97 per one lakh live births, achieving the National Health Policy 2017 target of 100 (though short of the SDG target of 70), with under-5 mortality down to 41.9 per 1,000 and institutional deliveries above 90 percent. But the national average hides regional chasms: Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have MMR below 50, while Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan sit above 150, clustered around poverty, illiteracy and weak infrastructure.

Each gap has a named scheme. Janani Suraksha Yojana gives cash incentives for institutional delivery; Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram makes delivery and newborn treatment free; Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan provides assured, comprehensive antenatal care on the 9th of every month; Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) promises zero tolerance for denial of service in public facilities, aiming at zero preventable maternal and newborn deaths; LaQshya drives quality improvement in labour rooms; the Midwifery Services Initiative trains 90,000 midwives; and the newer Swasth Nari Sashakt Parivar Abhiyaan is a nationwide women's health campaign reported in the Economic Survey 2025-26. Persistent blockers are anaemia at 57 percent of women (weakening their ability to survive childbirth), skilled-birth-attendant shortages, early marriage and adolescent pregnancy (6.7 percent per NFHS-6), and a quality-of-care gap in rural facilities.

Sexual and reproductive health data from NFHS-6 tells a more awkward story. Modern contraceptive use is 52.7 percent, slightly down; female sterilisation still dominates at 36.5 percent, showing limited use of spacing methods; male sterilisation is just 0.5 percent, showing the gender imbalance in family planning; total unmet need is 8.5 percent, down from 9.4 percent; and hygienic menstrual practices among 15-to-24-year-old women are 79.2 percent, up from 77.6 percent. For mains, the inference is sharp: maternal survival has improved through mission focus, but reproductive autonomy, where the state must work through patriarchal households rather than hospitals, lags.

Immunisation's next frontier: the HPV vaccine and the coverage push

Mission Indradhanush, covered in this article's NHM section, built the mission-mode template for immunisation; the next frontier is adolescent vaccination. A nationwide HPV vaccination campaign for girls aged 14 was reported as added in early 2026 to prevent cervical cancer. HPV (human papillomavirus) is the virus family behind most cervical cancers, so the vaccine shifts cancer control from treatment to prevention.

Full immunisation coverage was reported at 98.4 percent as of January 2026. Both figures come from single-source 2026 reporting; mains answers should cite them as reported levels, not settled achievements. The real test of the HPV campaign will be cold-chain delivery and school-based coverage in the districts where routine immunisation is weakest.

WASH: health beyond hospitals

Water, sanitation and hygiene are health interventions, not just civic amenities: WASH-related diseases cause around 6 lakh deaths a year in India, diarrhoea kills about a lakh under-five children annually, open defecation fed the stunting crisis before Swachh Bharat, and sanitation shapes women's safety, dignity and productivity. NFHS-6 reports 96.5 percent of households with an improved drinking water source and 98.3 percent with electricity, but a wide rural-urban gap in sanitation persists.

The programme stack: Swachh Bharat Mission (urban and rural) for toilet construction and ODF status, Jal Jeevan Mission for tap water to every rural household (its 2024 target was extended), AMRUT 2.0 for urban water supply and sewage, Namami Gange for river cleaning, Swachh Survekshan for annual sanitation rankings and Swachh Vidyalaya for school sanitation. The challenges, repeatedly flagged in sources, are behavioural and systemic: sustainability of behaviour change beyond toilet construction; Jal Jeevan's focus on connections rather than water quality in pipes; weak solid and liquid waste management in rural and small-town areas; and greywater and sewage treatment that remains underbuilt. The segment-specific design matters: tribal areas need community-led total sanitation rather than individual toilets, urban slums need maintained community toilets, and schools need separate girls' toilets to retain students.

Pandemic preparedness and One Health

COVID-19 exposed weaknesses in global health systems and vaccine inequities; India's response now shapes its preparedness architecture. The flagship frame is the One Health approach, which connects human, animal and environmental health because many diseases (COVID-19, Nipah, Zika, Ebola) begin as zoonotic spillovers. India has launched a National One Health Mission under the Principal Scientific Adviser, bringing doctors, veterinarians, ecologists and public health experts into cross-sectoral collaboration against zoonotic diseases and antibiotic resistance. Kerala's KARMI bot during COVID showed how technology can support frontline healthcare.

Internationally, the WHO Pandemic Treaty was adopted on 20 May 2025 at the 78th World Health Assembly: the first legally binding global agreement on pandemic preparedness. Domestically, the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, 2020 criminalised attacks on healthcare workers during pandemics, a response to violence against doctors (an IMA survey found 75 percent of doctors facing some form of violence in their careers). The NHRC's 2018 Charter of Patient Rights lists 17 rights including information, second opinion, confidentiality and non-discrimination; most states are yet to implement it fully, and the Clinical Establishments Act, 2010 sets basic facility standards.

Digital health: the ABDM layer

The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, launched in 2021, aims to integrate fragmented health data into a national digital infrastructure. Its components: the Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA), a unique 14-digit health ID with around 79 crore accounts created in the most conservative source (one coaching compilation reports over 90 crore, so treat the number as date-sensitive); the Healthcare Professionals Registry (around 6.57 lakh professionals registered); the Healthcare Facility Registry (over 4 lakh facilities); the Unified Health Interface for application interoperability; the Health Claim Exchange for cashless claims; and a Digital Health Incentive Scheme to drive adoption. Principles include voluntary participation with opt-out, free registration, consent-based privacy architecture and a federated design respecting state autonomy.

The challenges are familiar. The digital divide keeps rural and elderly citizens out (though NFHS-6 encouragingly shows female internet use jumping to 64.3 percent); privacy concerns persist without a comprehensive data protection framework; there is a demand and skill mismatch in the digital health workforce; interoperability across state systems is weak; and inadequate primary-care data means the system is being built on thin ground truth. AI-supported tools in regional languages have been reported for mental health, but single-source coaching claims should be treated as leads, not facts. The honest assessment: ABDM can transform Indian healthcare into a data-driven system, but only if connectivity, privacy and primary-care data are fixed first.

AYUSH: mainstreaming traditional medicine

AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homoeopathy) has had its own ministry since 2014, was mainstreamed by the National Health Policy 2017 and is integrated into Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. Yoga's global recognition through the International Day of Yoga (June 21) and the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre at Jamnagar are its soft-power assets; medical value tourism contributed USD 9 billion in 2023 and India ranks among the top 10 medical tourism destinations. Budget 2026-27 announced three new All India Institutes of Ayurveda, upgraded AYUSH pharmacies and drug testing labs and an upgraded WHO traditional-medicine centre: announcements, not outcomes, so they should be treated as intentions.

The critical view: lack of evidence-based protocols for many AYUSH treatments, quality control problems in medicines and practitioners, the "mixopathy" debates between AYUSH and modern medicine, and uneven integration with mainstream healthcare. For mains, AYUSH is best framed as a complement to, not a substitute for, the public health system: useful for wellness, prevention and medical value tourism, but held to the same evidence standards as everything else.

TB: Nikshay and the elimination programme

Nikshay (now Ni-kshay) is the Health Ministry's digital portal for TB notification and patient tracking, which follows every notified TB patient through diagnosis, treatment and outcome, run by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It anchors the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP), India's renamed and intensified TB-control programme, and feeds the Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana, which pays monthly nutritional support to TB patients during treatment. It matters because TB is India's largest disease-control programme by caseload, and the shift from paper registers to a live digital cohort is what makes the elimination target monitorable.

Affordable medicines: PMBJP

PMBJP is the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana, the Department of Pharmaceuticals scheme selling quality generic medicines at 50 to 90 percent below branded prices through Janaushadhi Kendras. It matters because medicines are the single largest component of out-of-pocket health spending; a cheap-medicines network attacks the expenditure that pushes households into poverty more directly than any insurance cover.

Mainstreaming tradition: the National AYUSH Mission

The National AYUSH Mission of the Ministry of AYUSH co-locates AYUSH services in primary health centres, community health centres and district hospitals, and upgrades AYUSH hospitals and dispensaries. It matters as the institutional route for integrating Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy into the public-health mainstream, rather than leaving traditional medicine as a parallel private market the poor access without quality assurance.

Disease-control programmes: the silent workhorses

Behind the flagship missions sits a set of disease-control programmes that do the unglamorous work of surveillance, mass drug administration and treatment scale-up. Mains answers on health governance should be able to name them:

• National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP): the programme that took India to leprosy elimination as a public-health problem and now chases complete interruption of transmission.
• National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP): the umbrella for malaria, dengue and kala-azar control; kala-azar cases are reported down 97 percent, with a 2027 malaria-elimination goal cited in current reporting.
• National AIDS Control Programme (NACP): targeted interventions and treatment scale-up for HIV/AIDS.
• Pulse Polio Programme: the mass immunisation drives behind India's polio-free certification.
• National Viral Hepatitis Control Program (NVHCP): diagnosis and treatment for hepatitis B and C.
• Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP): the early-warning outbreak-surveillance network.
• National Programme on Containment of Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR): stewardship against drug-resistant infections.

The AYUSH institutional stack

Beyond the ministry and the NHP 2017 mainstreaming, AYUSH runs on its own institutional stack:

• Ayurgyan Scheme: the central scheme for capacity building, research and Ayurveda-biology integrated research.
• NCISM and NCH: the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine and the National Commission for Homeopathy, the regulators for education and practice standards.
• Ayush Mark and Ayush Premium Mark: certification programmes for AYUSH products.
• Champion Sector Services Scheme: builds skilled AYUSH human resources and promotes medical value travel.
• Ayush Grid: the digital backbone modernising traditional medicine through services, investment and standardised global health reporting platforms.
• ICD-11 inclusion: traditional-medicine diagnoses entering the WHO's global classification, the standardisation milestone.

Way forward: from missions to systems

• Close the missing-middle gap: extend financial protection to the 40 crore Indians outside both PM-JAY and private insurance, and crucially cover outpatient care, diagnostics and medicines that drive most out-of-pocket spending.
• Fix PM-JAY governance: act on the CAG findings (beneficiary database cleanup, claim fraud controls), address utilisation disparities across states, and implement the V. K. Paul committee reforms.
• Invest in the frontline: regularise ASHA compensation with career paths, fill Community Health Officer vacancies, and keep at least 70 percent of the health budget directed to primary care per the Reddy Committee logic.
• Attack maternal-health geography: differential financing for the high-MMR states, aggressive anaemia control, and midwifery-led care models.
• Make WASH sustainable: move from toilet and tap counts to behaviour change, water quality in pipes, and waste and sewage management, with community-led designs for tribal areas and slums.
• Build One Health and digital rails properly: fund zoonotic surveillance and state laboratory networks; make ABDM genuinely voluntary, privacy-safe and interoperable before pushing universal adoption.

How we measure: NFHS-5

The National Family Health Survey-5, conducted between 2019 and 2021, is the most comprehensive recent picture of India's health and demographic indicators, and the baseline against which nutrition missions are judged.

The paradox is the exam point: institutional births and immunisation improved sharply, yet anaemia worsened among women and children, and overweight rose. NFHS-5 also added new data points: preschool education, disability, toilet access, death registration, menstrual hygiene and abortion.

POSHAN Abhiyaan: the nutrition mission

Nutrition is the cornerstone of human development, influencing health, education, and economic productivity. Yet undernutrition contributes to over 40 percent of under-five deaths in India. POSHAN Abhiyaan was launched to attack malnutrition through convergence and better service delivery, with targets for 2022-23 set against NFHS-4 data: stunting and underweight below 25 percent, and anaemia down to 43 percent among children and 38 percent among women.

The verdict is mixed: stunting and underweight fell, but anaemia rose alarmingly. The response stack now includes Anaemia Mukt Bharat (2018) for children, adolescents and women, Poshan Vatikas (kitchen gardens at Anganwadi centres for dietary diversity), and a 'screen and treat' model for anaemia across schools, homes and health centres. Policy advice converges on the first 1,000 days: home visits, birth spacing, immunisation and fortification.

The Global Hunger Index 2025: India at 102

The Global Hunger Index 2025, titled '20 Years of Tracking Progress: Time to Recommit to Zero Hunger' and released in October 2025, tracks hunger through four indicators: undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality. India scored 25.8, in the 'serious' category, and ranked 102 out of 123 countries, an improvement from 105 out of 127 (score 27.3) in 2024.

India's child wasting rate is the second highest in the report, and stunting the 21st highest. The government's counter-stack: PMGKAY (free foodgrains to about 80 crore beneficiaries), the NFSA 2013 (legal entitlement for 75 percent of the rural and 50 percent of the urban population), PMMVY (Rs.5,000 maternity benefit), and Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.

Eating right: dietary guidelines and dietary diversity

The ICMR-NIN revised Dietary Guidelines for Indians respond to the double burden of undernutrition and non-communicable disease. The core prescriptions: at least eight food groups daily; cereals capped at 45 percent of energy; protein at 14 percent; salt at or below 5 grams a day; sugar below 5 percent of calories; total fat within 30 percent of energy. The guidelines also target hidden hunger: deficiencies of iron, iodine, zinc and vitamin A that impair immunity, cognition and growth.

Measurement itself is improving. The UN Statistical Commission has adopted Minimum Dietary Diversity as a new SDG indicator (custodians: FAO and UNICEF), filling the gap in global diet-quality monitoring. MDD is achieved when a person consumes at least five of eight food groups (breast milk; grains, roots and tubers; legumes and nuts; dairy; flesh foods; eggs; vitamin-A-rich fruits and vegetables; other fruits and vegetables). Analysis of 2019-21 data found about 77 percent of Indian children aged 6-23 months failing the MDD standard, with the worst failures in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Malaria: the elimination push

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by Plasmodium parasites, transmitted to humans through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. India's malaria burden has fallen sharply, and the country exited the WHO's High Burden to High Impact group in 2024, a global recognition of its control effort.

The strategy stack: WHO's Global Technical Strategy for Malaria (2016-2030, updated 2021) aims to cut global cases and deaths by at least 90 percent; India's National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination (2023-27) targets zero indigenous cases by 2030. On vaccines, WHO has approved two: RTS,S/AS01 (Mosquirix, 2021) and R21/Matrix-M (2023), the second cheaper and more scalable.

Key Terms

• which follows every notified TB patient through diagnosis, treatment and outcome: This describes Ni-kshay, the web-based case surveillance system of India's National TB Elimination Programme. Every TB patient notified by public or private providers is registered on the portal and tracked from diagnosis through treatment to final outcome, enabling benefit transfers and programme monitoring. For UPSC GS-2 (health governance) and GS-3 (science and technology) it is the flagship digital health intervention. Example: Ni-kshay was launched by the Central TB Division in June 2012. Ni-kshay was launched by the Central TB Division in June 2012.
• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is the Union ministry responsible for public health policy, disease control, and family welfare programmes. It runs flagship schemes on immunization, maternal health, and health insurance. For UPSC, it is the nodal ministry for health-related current affairs. It implements Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, the world's largest health insurance scheme.
• Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan: The Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan, launched in 2016, provides free assured antenatal check-ups by specialists on the 9th of every month at designated facilities. It targets undetected high-risk pregnancies to reduce maternal and infant mortality, and encourages private doctors to volunteer their services. For UPSC it illustrates targeted maternal health intervention within the NHM framework. A pregnant woman's free second-trimester check-up by an obstetrician at a district hospital.
• Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, 2020: The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, 2020 strengthened the colonial-era 1897 law during the COVID-19 pandemic. It made violence against healthcare workers a cognizable and non-bailable offence, punishable with three months to five years imprisonment and fines up to two lakh rupees, rising to seven years for grievous hurt. It matters for UPSC in discussions of public health law and protection of frontline workers. Example: its use against attacks on doctors and nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. its use against attacks on doctors and nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic
• WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre: The WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre at Jamnagar, Gujarat, is the World Health Organization's first global centre dedicated to traditional medicine, inaugurated on 19 April 2022 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus. It works on evidence and learning, data and analytics, sustainability and innovation to integrate traditional medicine into health systems. For UPSC, it anchors questions on AYUSH and health diplomacy. India signed a donor agreement with WHO in 2025 for a traditional medicine module under the International Classification of Health Interventions.
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana: The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, launched in September 2018 under Ayushman Bharat, is the world's largest health assurance scheme, covering about 55 crore beneficiaries identified from SECC 2011 data. It provides Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary hospitalisation, cashless and portable across empanelled hospitals. For UPSC it is central to health policy and fiscal federalism debates. A family's cashless surgery at an empanelled private hospital in another state.
• WHO Global Health Leaders Award: The WHO Director-General's Global Health Leaders Award recognises outstanding contributions to advancing global health, leadership and commitment to regional health issues. Announced at the World Health Assembly, it honours individuals and groups rather than member states. For UPSC, it signals global recognition of public health work. India's one million ASHA workers received the 2022 award for linking rural communities to primary healthcare during COVID-19.
• Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram: The Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram, launched in 2011, entitles pregnant women and sick newborns to completely free care in public facilities: delivery, drugs, diagnostics, transport, and diet, with zero out-of-pocket expense. It complements the Janani Suraksha Yojana by removing cost barriers to institutional care. It matters for UPSC in maternal and newborn health policy. Free ambulance transport for a woman in labour to the nearest public hospital.
• Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram: The Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram is a child health screening programme under the National Health Mission covering children from birth to 18 years. It screens for the 4 Ds: defects at birth, deficiencies, diseases, and developmental delays including disabilities, with free treatment and referral through District Early Intervention Centres. It matters for UPSC as the flagship early-childhood health intervention for vulnerable sections. A mobile health team screening anganwadi children for anaemia and referring cases to the district centre.
• Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission: The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, launched in September 2021, builds the digital backbone of India's health system on open, interoperable standards. Its building blocks include the Ayushman Bharat Health Account number for citizens, the Healthcare Professionals Registry and the Health Facility Registry, enabling consent-based sharing of digital health records across providers. It is a flagship UPSC example of digital public infrastructure applied to health. Patients use their 14-digit ABHA number to link health records across different hospitals.
• Ayushman Bharat Health Account: The Ayushman Bharat Health Account, or ABHA number, is a 14-digit unique health identifier issued under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. It lets citizens create, access and share digital health records across hospitals and providers on a consent basis, building longitudinal health histories. Anyone can generate an ABHA using Aadhaar or a mobile number. It is the citizen-facing layer of India's health-data ecosystem for UPSC. ABHA-based scan-and-share tokens at hospital OPD counters have cut registration queues.
• Dietary Guidelines for Indians: ICMR-NIN guidelines (revised): eight food groups daily, cereals at most 45 percent of energy, protein 14 percent, salt at most 5 g/day, sugar below 5 percent of calories, fat within 30 percent of energy.

Practice questions