As 2025 concludes, India’s healthcare landscape reflects an unprecedented transformation shaped by the Ayushman Bharat initiative. Conceived as the world’s largest publicly funded healthcare framework, it rests on four integrated pillars: Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. Together, they are reimagining what universal healthcare means in a diverse, populous democracy.
The first pillar, the Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, formerly Health and Wellness Centres, embodies the fundamental reform of shifting from illness based treatment to wellness driven care. More than 1.8 lakh such centres are now operational with an expanded package of primary care services and teleconsultation facilities, recording hundreds of crores of visits and remote consultations. With millions screened for hypertension, diabetes, and common cancers, and crores of yoga and wellness sessions conducted, these centres bring preventive and primary care to the community’s doorstep. They are, in spirit and substance, India’s new temples of wellbeing.
The second pillar, the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PMJAY), demonstrates how social justice can be advanced through financial protection. Covering around 12 crore families with an annual cover of five lakh rupees per family for secondary and tertiary hospitalization, it has emerged as the world’s largest publicly funded health assurance scheme. Tens of crores of Ayushman cards have been created, and more than ten crore hospital admissions have been authorized, with women accounting for nearly half of both cards and hospitalizations. The introduction of a dedicated card for all citizens aged 70 and above, irrespective of income, has further deepened the safety net for the elderly.
The third pillar, the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM ABHIM), represents the strategic strengthening of India’s health backbone. With a multi year outlay running into tens of thousands of crores, it seeks to build a network of block public health units, district integrated public health laboratories, and critical care hospital blocks, while creating an IT enabled disease surveillance system from the local to the national level. New critical care units in central institutions and state hospitals, along with thousands of upgraded sub centres and health facilities, are designed to ensure preparedness against future pandemics and public health emergencies.
The fourth pillar, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), is weaving these efforts into a single interoperable digital ecosystem. It builds a citizen centred health system around the Ayushman Bharat Health Account for individuals, alongside registries for professionals, facilities, and medicines. Through consent based data sharing and digital health exchanges, citizens can securely store, access, and share their medical records, enabling continuity of care and reducing fragmentation in service delivery.
Ayushman Bharat, in all its dimensions, shows that health reform in India is not just an obligation of the state but a national project of equity, technology, and trust. Its success is measured not only in the scale of numbers but in the coherence of its vision, one that fuses compassion with modernity and public service with precision. In essence, India is building a healthcare system where care reaches the last mile, data strengthens every link, and wellbeing becomes an integral foundation of nationhood.
