New York: Modi highlights 4 pillars of health sector at high-level meeting

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday highlighted four pillars of healthcare which are currently being focused on in India during a high-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage here on Monday.

They include preventive healthcare where the focus is on Yoga, Ayurveda, fitness, and immunization; affordable healthcare; improvement in supply-side and mission mode intervention, Modi said during his address.

"We have given special emphasis on Yoga, Ayurveda, and fitness. We are building more than 1.25 lakh wellness centers. It is helping to control lifestyle diseases like diabetes, depression," the Prime Minister added at the event.

He also outlined India's latest ban on e-cigarettes at the meeting. "The craze of e-cigarettes is a matter of concern. To save the young generation from this problem, India has banned e-cigarettes," Modi stated.

"We implemented the world's largest health assurance scheme - Ayushman Bharat Yojana under which 500 million poor are being given free health benefits up to Rs 5,00,000 every year. In the last 1 year, 4.5 million people were benefitted," the leader also said.

Interestingly, Modi's address at the high-level meeting coincides with the one-year anniversary of the Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), which was launched by the Prime Minister on the very same day last year.