Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (AB-HIM)

• In the Budget speech of FY 21-22, ‘Prime Minister Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana’ (PMASBY) scheme which has now been renamed PM – Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) was announced on 1st February 2021, with an outlay of about Rs. 64,180 Cr over six years (till FY 25-26).
• This scheme is in addition to the National Health Mission.

• The measures under the scheme focus on developing capacities of health systems and institutions across the continuum of care at all levels viz. primary, secondary and tertiary and on preparing health systems in responding effectively to the current and future pandemics/disasters.
• The Mission targets to build an IT enabled disease surveillance system by developing a network of surveillance laboratories at block, district, regional and national levels, in Metropolitan areas & strengthening health units at the Points of Entry, for effectively detecting, investigating, preventing, and combating Public Health Emergencies and Disease Outbreaks.

The components of the PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) scheme are:

1) Centrally Sponsored Components:

• Support for 17,788 rural Health and Wellness Centres in 10 High Focus States.
• Establishing 11,024 urban Health and Wellness Centres in all the States.
• 3382 Block Public Health Units in 11 High Focus states. Support for other States/UTs under XV Finance Commission Health Sector Grants and NHM.
• Setting up of Integrated Public Health Labs in all districts.
• Establishing Critical Care Hospital Blocks in all districts with population more than 5 lakhs.

2) Central Sector Components

• 12 Central Institutions as training and mentoring sites with 150 bedded Critical Care Hospital Blocks;
• Strengthening of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), 5 New Regional NCDCs and 20 metropolitan health surveillance units;
• Expansion of the Integrated Health Information Portal to all States/UTs to connect all public health labs;
• Operationalisation of 17 new Public Health Units and strengthening of 33 existing Public Health Units at Points of Entry, that is at 32 Airports, 11 Seaports and 7 land crossings;
• Setting up of 15 Health Emergency Operation Centres and 2 container-based mobile hospitals; and
• Setting up of a national institution for One Health, 4 New National Institutes for Virology, a Regional Research Platform for WHO South-East Asia Region and 9 Bio-Safety Level III laboratories.

The National Health Mission is envisaged to establish a fully functional, community-owned, decentralized health delivery system with inter-sectoral convergence at all levels. NHM aims to provide universal access to equitable, affordable and quality health care mainly focusing on primary and secondary care. However, PM-ABHIM is the largest pan-India scheme for strengthening healthcare infrastructure across the country which focuses on the primary, secondary and tertiary care services. The major aim of PM-ABHIM to establish a health system which is responding effectively to the future pandemics/disasters.

Under the scheme, there is a provision for setting up of Integrated Public Health Labs (IPHLs) in all 730 districts across the country (upto FY 2025-26) with the outlay of Rs 1482.60 Crore which includes Rs 990.40 Crore as Central Share and Rs 492.20 Crore as State Share.

How to promote Renewable Energy Sources in India?

At present, the Government has set a target for achieving 175 GW of Renewable Energy capacity by the year 2022. A total of 150 GW of renewable energy capacity (including large hydro) has been installed in the country to date. Further, projects of 63.64 GW capacity are under various stages of implementation and 32.06 GW capacity are under various stages of bidding. Therefore, a total of 245.70 GW capacity has either been installed or under various stages of implementation /bidding.

The Government has taken several steps to promote renewable energy sources in the Country. These include:-

• Permitting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) up to 100 per cent under the automatic route,
• Waiver of Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) charges for inter-state sale of solar and wind power for projects to be commissioned by 30th June 2025,
• Laying of new transmission lines and creating new sub-station capacity for evacuation of renewable power,
• Declaration of trajectory for Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) up to the year 2022,
• Setting up of RE parks to provide land and transmission to RE developers on a plug-and-play basis,
• Schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PMKUSUM), Solar Rooftop Phase II, 12000 MW CPSU Scheme Phase II, etc,
• Notification of standards for deployment of solar photovoltaic systems/devices,
• Setting up of Project Development Cell for attracting and facilitating investments,
• Standard Bidding Guidelines for tariff-based competitive bidding for procurement of Power from Grid Connected Solar PV and Wind Projects.
• The government has issued orders that power shall be dispatched against Letter of Credit (LC) or advance payment to ensure timely payment by distribution licensees to RE generators.
• Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) was launched to facilitate procurement of RE power through power exchange in the country.

National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy issued the National Wind-Solar Hybrid Policy on 14th May 2018.

• The main objective of the National Wind Solar Hybrid Policy is to provide a framework for the promotion of large grid-connected wind-solar PV hybrid systems for optimal and efficient utilization of wind and solar resources, transmission infrastructure and land.
• A scheme for setting up of 2500 MW Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) connected wind solar hybrid projects was sanctioned on 25.05.2018.
• In order to promote hybrid renewable energy technologies, Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI) has brought out tenders, viz. Solar-Wind Hybrid Projects, with assured supply during peak hours and Round Clock (RTC) renewable Power.

The Government has taken several steps to promote renewable energy, including wind-solar hybrid renewable energy, in the country.

These include:

• permitting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) up to 100 per cent under the automatic route,
• waiver of Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) charges for inter-state sale of solar and
• wind power for projects to be commissioned by 30th June 2025,
• declaration of trajectory for Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) up to the year 2022,
• setting up Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Parks to provide land and transmission to RE developers on a plug-and-play basis,
• laying of new transmission lines and creating new sub-station capacity for evacuation of renewable power,
• setting up of Project Development Cell for attracting and facilitating investments,
• Standard Bidding Guidelines for tariff-based competitive bidding process for procurement of Power from Grid Connected Solar PV, Wind and wind-solar hybrid Projects.
• The government has issued orders that power shall be dispatched against Letter of Credit (LC) or
• advance payment to ensure timely payment by distribution licensees to RE generators.
• Conducting skill development programs to create a pool of skilled manpower for implementation, operation, and maintenance of RE projects.

Under the Ministry’s Renewable Energy Research and Technology Development Programme, various research institutions and industries are provided financial support for carrying out renewable energy research including the development of new technologies like hybrid solar-wind technologies. The Ministry encourages research and technology development proposals in collaboration with the industry and provides up to 100% financial support to Government/non-profit research organizations and up to 50% to Industry, startups and Private Institutes.

A research project entitled “Integrated Wind and Solar Resource Assessment through Mapping and Measurements” has been sanctioned to the National Institute of Wind Energy, Chennai with a total cost of Rs 17.99 crore. Under this project, integrated wind-solar measurement stations at 23 locations have been commissioned and a Solar Wind hybrid map has been prepared.