<span style="color: #222222;">The News Services Division brings you glimpses of year 2021, in its Special Year Ender series, &quot;The Year that was&quot;. Today, we take a look at the largest pan-India Health Infrastructure Scheme, Ayushman Bharat. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, termed as Ayushman Bharat, was launched by the Centre on 23rd September 2018.<br />”<br />”With an outlay of 64 thousand 180 crore rupees, it aims to provide a much-needed fillip to India's capacity to address Public Health issues. The scheme provides cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiaries at the point of service. It helps to reduce hospital expenditure and mitigate the financial risk for the needy.<br />”<br />”Launching the Ayushman Bharat Mission in Ranchi three years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the scheme was a step towards serving the poor people of the country.<br />”<br />”AIR correspondent reports that the Ayushman Bharat scheme has been able to bring about a paradigm shift in India’s healthcare infrastructure and make it more resilient.<br />”<br />”Ayushman Bharat scheme was a game-changer for the health sector. The scheme, which is the world's largest health care programme, provides a cover of up to five lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to around ten crore 74 lakh poor and vulnerable families.<br />”<br />”The beneficiary families under the scheme are identified from the Socio-Economic Caste Census of 2011 on the basis of select deprivation and occupational criteria across rural and urban areas.<br />”<br />”Over 17 crore 31 lakh beneficiaries have been given e-cards to avail the benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana so far. Over two crore 53 lakh people have availed treatment under the scheme.<br />”<br />”The implementation of such an enormous healthcare program has had a significant impact on all stakeholders, including healthcare providers, health insurers; medical equipment companies, and pharmaceutical industry.&nbsp;</span><br />