Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)
Source: News on Air / PIB
Summary
The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) has crossed a landmark milestone of over 90 crore Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts (ABHAs) generated across India. ABDM is a flagship national digital public infrastructure (DPI) project, implemented by the National Health Authority (NHA) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, launched in September 2021. It functions as a single, unified digital highway linking citizens, doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, diagnostic centres, and insurers into an integrated, transparent, and interoperable framework — giving citizens ownership of their lifelong, longitudinal health records.
Key takeaways:
- 90+ crore ABHAs — ABHA is a 14-digit unique digital health identity letting citizens securely store, access, and share medical records with consent.
- Consistent growth: cumulative ABHA creation rose from 14.7 crore (2021) to 30.4 crore (2022), 50.6 crore (2023), 72.2 crore (2024), 84.5 crore (2025), before crossing 90 crore in 2026.
- State leaders: Uttar Pradesh leads with over 15.3 crore ABHAs, followed by Rajasthan and Maharashtra (each crossing 7 crore).
- Full saturation achieved in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
- Broad-based: women account for nearly 49.75% of total ABHA holders.
- One of the world’s largest digital health identity programmes, built on six foundational building blocks.
Background & Concept
What is ABDM? A flagship digital public infrastructure initiative to create a seamless, interoperable digital health ecosystem. It began as the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), piloted in six UTs on 15 August 2020, and was rolled out nationally as ABDM on 27 September 2021 by the Prime Minister.
ABDM’s vision is to bridge the information gap between public and private healthcare, create a single source of truth for health data, and give citizens full ownership of their records. Crucially, it follows a federated, consent-based architecture — health data stays with the provider that generated it, and is shared only with the patient’s explicit, electronic, revocable consent (a “data minimisation” model rather than a central data lake). The NHA CEO, Dr Sunil Kumar Barnwal, noted that as adoption deepens, ABHA will enable continuity of care, reduce dependence on physical records and support a more seamless, transparent and citizen-centric healthcare delivery system.
Snapshot — ABHA Growth Trajectory
| Year | Cumulative ABHAs |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 14.7 crore |
| 2022 | 30.4 crore |
| 2023 | 50.6 crore |
| 2024 | 72.2 crore |
| 2025 | 84.5 crore |
| 2026 | 90+ crore (milestone) |
Aim
(a) Build an integrated, transparent, interoperable digital health infrastructure for India. (b) Bridge the public–private divide in healthcare data. (c) Create a single source of truth for health records. (d) Give citizens ownership and consent-based control of their lifelong health records.
Six Foundational Building Blocks
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
| ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) | 14-digit unique digital health identifier; the master key to link and share medical history |
| Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) | Verified central database of doctors, nurses, paramedics — modern and traditional medicine |
| Health Facility Registry (HFR) | Master registry of public & private hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres, pharmacies |
| Health Information Exchange & Consent Manager (HIE-CM) | Routes medical records with explicit, electronic, revocable patient consent |
| Unified Health Interface (UHI) | Open network protocol for teleconsultations, diagnostics, and digital health services |
| National Health Claims Exchange (NHCX) | Digital platform to standardise and speed up health insurance claim settlements |
About the Key Institutions
National Health Authority (NHA) — The apex implementing agency for ABDM and for PM-JAY (the health-insurance arm of Ayushman Bharat). It functions under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and is the successor to the National Health Agency.
Ayushman Bharat — the three components (for context):
- Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (formerly Health & Wellness Centres) — comprehensive primary care.
- PM-JAY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana) — health-insurance cover of ₹5 lakh per family per year for eligible beneficiaries (the world’s largest such scheme).
- ABDM — the digital backbone linking the ecosystem (this mission).
Keywords & Definitions
▸ ABDM (Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission): Flagship DPI for an interoperable digital health ecosystem; launched Sept 2021, implemented by NHA under MoHFW.
▸ ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account): A 14-digit unique digital health ID enabling consent-based linking and sharing of health records (formerly “Health ID”).
▸ NDHM (National Digital Health Mission): ABDM’s earlier name; piloted 15 August 2020 in six UTs.
▸ Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): Shared, interoperable digital systems (e.g., UPI, Aadhaar, ABDM) that enable services at population scale.
▸ Longitudinal Health Record: A continuous, lifelong record of a person’s health across providers and time.
▸ Federated / Consent-based Architecture: Data stays with its generator and is shared only with the patient’s explicit, revocable consent — no central data lake.
▸ HPR / HFR: Healthcare Professionals Registry / Health Facility Registry — verified master directories of providers and facilities.
▸ HIE-CM: Health Information Exchange & Consent Manager — the consent-routing layer for sharing records.
▸ UHI (Unified Health Interface): Open protocol enabling teleconsultation, e-pharmacy, diagnostics, and other digital services.
▸ NHCX (National Health Claims Exchange): Platform to standardise and speed up health-insurance claim settlement.
▸ NHA (National Health Authority): Apex agency implementing ABDM and PM-JAY under MoHFW.
▸ PM-JAY: Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana — the insurance arm of Ayushman Bharat (₹5 lakh/family/year).
Question Section (MCQs)
Q1. The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) is implemented by which agency, under which ministry? (a) NITI Aayog — PMO (b) National Health Authority — Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (c) MeitY — Ministry of Electronics and IT (d) ICMR — Ministry of Science and Technology
Q2. The Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) is a unique digital health identifier of how many digits? (a) 10 (b) 12 (c) 14 (d) 16
Q3. Consider the following statements about ABDM:
- It was launched nationally in September 2021.
- It is a digital public infrastructure (DPI) project.
- It stores all citizens’ health data in a single central database. Which are correct? (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3
Q4. Which of the following is NOT one of the six foundational building blocks of ABDM? (a) Health Facility Registry (HFR) (b) Unified Health Interface (UHI) (c) National Health Claims Exchange (NHCX) (d) National Pension System (NPS)
Q5. The National Health Claims Exchange (NHCX) is designed primarily to: (a) Maintain a registry of doctors (b) Standardise and speed up health-insurance claim settlements (c) Provide teleconsultation services (d) Issue ABHA numbers
Q6. As of 2026, the cumulative number of ABHAs generated under ABDM crossed: (a) 50 crore (b) 72 crore (c) 84 crore (d) 90 crore
Q7. The three components of Ayushman Bharat are:
- Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (Health & Wellness Centres)
- PM-JAY (health insurance)
- ABDM (digital mission)
- PM SVANidhi (street-vendor credit) Which are correct? (a) 1, 2 and 3 only (b) 1, 2 and 4 only (c) 2, 3 and 4 only (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Q8. Match the ABDM building block with its function: A. ABHA — 1. Registry of hospitals and clinics B. HFR — 2. 14-digit health identifier C. HIE-CM — 3. Open protocol for teleconsultation/diagnostics D. UHI — 4. Consent-based routing of health records (a) A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3 (b) A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4 (c) A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3 (d) A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2
Q9. Under ABDM’s architecture, a patient’s health records are shared: (a) Automatically with all registered providers (b) Only with the patient’s explicit, revocable electronic consent (c) With insurers without consent (d) Only on a court order
Q10. Which state leads the country in ABHA creation, with over 15 crore accounts? (a) Maharashtra (b) Rajasthan (c) Uttar Pradesh (d) Bihar
Answer Key with Explanations
▸ Q1 → (b) ABDM is implemented by the National Health Authority (NHA) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
▸ Q2 → (c) 14. ABHA is a 14-digit unique digital health identity.
▸ Q3 → (a) 1 and 2 only. Statement 3 is wrong — ABDM uses a federated, consent-based model where data stays with the provider; there is no single central data lake. It launched in September 2021 and is a DPI project.
▸ Q4 → (d) National Pension System (NPS). NPS is a pension scheme, unrelated to ABDM. The six blocks are ABHA, HPR, HFR, HIE-CM, UHI, and NHCX.
▸ Q5 → (b) NHCX standardises and speeds up health-insurance claim settlements.
▸ Q6 → (d) 90 crore. Cumulative ABHAs crossed 90 crore in 2026 (up from 84.5 crore in 2025).
▸ Q7 → (a) 1, 2 and 3 only. Ayushman Bharat = Ayushman Arogya Mandirs + PM-JAY + ABDM. PM SVANidhi (street-vendor credit) is unrelated.
▸ Q8 → (a) A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3. ABHA (14-digit ID); HFR (facility registry); HIE-CM (consent-based record routing); UHI (teleconsultation/diagnostics protocol).
▸ Q9 → (b) Sharing requires the patient’s explicit, electronic, revocable consent — the cornerstone of ABDM’s privacy-by-design model.
▸ Q10 → (c) Uttar Pradesh, leading with over 15.3 crore ABHAs.
