PM CARES FUND

WHY IN NEWS

• The government has set up the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency
Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) on 27th March 2020 in New Delhi, to deal with any kind of
emergency or distress situation like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

KEY POINTS

• The Fund is a public charitable trust with the Prime Minister as its Chairman. Other Members
include Defence Minister, Home Minister, and Finance Minister.
• The Fund enables micro-donations because of which many people will be able to contribute
with the smallest of denominations.
• The Fund will strengthen disaster management capacities and encourage research on
protecting citizens.
• Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairman of the PM CARES Fund and Minister of Defence,
Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance, Government of India are ex-officio
Trustees of the Fund.
• The PM-CARES Fund can have up to 13 eminent experts, working pro bono, and can
undertake relief or assistance of any kind relating to a public health emergency or any other
emergency.
• Trustees of the Fund during the second meeting held in April 2020 decided to appoint M/s
SARC Associates, Chartered Accountants, New Delhi as the auditors of PM CARES Fund for 3
years.
• The fund enables micro-donations. The minimum donation accepted for the Fund is as low
as ₹10.
• An amount of Rs. 100 Crore will be given from PM CARES Fund as a helping hand to catalyse
vaccine development, which will be utilized under the supervision of Principal Scientific
Advisor.
• 100% exemption under the Income Tax Act, 1961 can be avail if donated to this fund.
• PM CARES Fund is audited by an independent auditor. Trustees of the Fund during the 2nd
meeting held on 23.04.2020 decided to appoint M/s SARC & Associates, Chartered
Accountants, New Delhi as the auditors of PM CARES Fund for 3 years.
 AYUSHMAN BHARAT YOJANA

WHAT IS THIS SCHEME?

Ayushman Bharat or “Healthy India” is a national initiative launched by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi as the part of National Health Policy 2017, in order to achieve the vision of Universal Health
Coverage (UHC). This initiative has been designed on the lines as to meet SDG and its underlining
commitment, which is “leave no one behind”.

COMPONENTS OF AYUSHMAN BHARAT

Ayushman Bharat adopts a continuum of care approach, comprising of two inter-related

components, which are –

1. Establishment of Health and Wellness Centres

2. Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY)

1. Establishment of Health and Wellness Centres–The first component, pertains to creation of

1,50,000 Health and Wellness Centres which will bring health care closer to the homes of the
people. These centres will provide Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC), covering both
maternal and child health services and non-communicable diseases, including free essential drugs
and diagnostic services.

2. Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) –PM-JAY is one significant step towards
achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Sustainable Development Goal - 3 (SDG3). It
aims to provide health protection cover to poor and vulnerable families against financial risk arising
out of catastrophic health episodes.

The PMJAY is available to the following types of people in the rural areas -

1. Households belonging in the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes.

2. Landless households who earn a major part of their income from manual labour.

3. Families not having any household.

4. Those living in extreme poverty or living on alms.

Medical Packages:
As a beneficiary of the scheme, families, as well as individuals, can avail nearly 25 specialities, which
include:

• Cardiology

• Oncology

• Neurology

• Paediatrics
 • Orthopaedics

• COVID-19

The health insurance under AB-PMJAY includes hospitalization costs of beneficiaries and includes
the below components:

• Pre-hospitalisation.

• Non-intensive and intensive care services.

• Medicine and medical consumables.

• Diagnostic and laboratory services.

• Medical implant services, wherever possible.

• Food services.

• Complication arising during treatment.

• Post-hospitalisation expenses for up to 15 days.

• COVID-19 (Coronavirus) treatment.

What is Not Covered Under Ayushman Bharat Yojana Scheme?

Like other types of health insurance policies, the Ayushman Bharat Yojana Scheme has some
exclusions. Below components are not covered under the scheme:

• Out-Patient Department (OPD) expenses.

• Drug rehabilitation.

• Cosmetic surgeries.

• Fertility treatments.

• Individual diagnostics.

• Organ transplant.

BENEFITS OF PM-JAY

• Government provides health insurance cover of up to Rs. 5,00,000 per family per year.

• More than 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries)
covered across the country.

• As of now, around 22,000 hospitals are under this scheme.

• All families listed in the SECC database as per defined criteria will be covered. No cap on
family size and age of members.

• 1,350 medical packages covering surgery, medical and day care treatments, cost of
medicines and diagnostics.

• All pre-existing diseases covered. Hospitals cannot deny treatment.

 UMANG

Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG), is a mobile app, a Digital India
initiative of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), by the Government of India
for access to central and state government services.

The app supports 13 Indian languages. Launched on 23rd November 2017 by Prime Minister Modi.

At launch the app offered 162 services from 33 state and central government departments and four
states.

About 263 central services are offered through the UMANG app It has now expanded to nearly 600
services.

110 offices of Employee Provident Fund are connected with the central server and more adding soon
in near future.

UMANG is multi-linguistic app too, with having support of 13 languages, according to the population
speaking.

OBJECTIVE
1) To act as an enabler and facilitator in developing overall mobile based service delivery ecosystem
in India.

2) Provide easy access for individuals to various services via single Mobile Application, easy to
remember short code and single Toll Free number.

3) Provide easy discoverability of services, easy manageability and standardisation of service

delivery.