The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley unveiled the world’s largest Healthcare program today. He proposed to launch the Revitalising of Infrastructure and Systems of Education (RISE) by next year. He spoke about setting up two new full fledged schools of planning and architecture. Eighteen schools of planning and architecture will be set up in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and National Institute of Technology (NIT.)
Arun Jaitley said, “We are allocating Rs. 1 lakh crore in the next four years to boost Research and Development. We are also coming up with a specialised Railway University at Vadodara. Demographic dividend realisation is impossible without proper healthcare. Health and wellness centres to bring healthcare closer and more accessible to people. Rs. 1,200 crores earmarked for this flagship program under the National Health Policy 2017.”
Jaitley further added, “Healthcare protection is at a new aspirational level. We are now launching a new national health protection scheme Rashtriya Samaj Beema Yojana. This will have 50 crore beneficiaries and 10 crore families will get Rs. 5 lakh per year for their families to cover secondary and tertiary hospital expenses. This is the world’s largest Government funded healthcare program. A Rs. 600 crore corpus is being set up to help Tuberculosis patients. This will build a new India in 2022 and enhance productivity and will also generate lakhs of jobs for women. We are progressing towards Universal Health Coverage.”
Jaitley also announced the Prime Minister (PM) fellowship program Jeevan Bheema Yojana. It is said the Jeevan Beema Yojana benefited more than 2 crore families. Jaitley said, “The Jan Dhan Yojana will be extended to all 60 crore bank accounts. Our Government has increased allocation for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) earmarked programmes: Rs. 56,000 crore for SCs and Rs. 39,000 crore for STs. By 2022, every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have ‘Ekalavya’ school at par with Navodaya Vidyalas.”
The National Health Policy 2017 envisioned health and wellness centres as the foundation of India’s healthcare system. Jaitley said Rs. 1,200 crore will be used for this flagship program and invited contributors from private sectors.
