The Pradhan Mantri-Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme and the largest pan-India initiative for strengthening healthcare infrastructure. Announced in the Budget 2021-22 and officially launched on October 25, 2021, the mission has a total outlay of ₹64,180 crore for the period FY 2021-22 to FY 2025-26. It was conceived as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed critical weaknesses like inadequate diagnostic capacity, weak integration between care levels, and insufficient critical care infrastructure. The scheme aims to fill these critical supply-side infrastructure gaps, complementing the demand-side financing of the Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).
The mechanism follows a three-tier strategy to strengthen health systems across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Key provisions include establishing 9,519 rural and 5,456 urban Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (AAMs) for comprehensive primary care. It mandates the creation of Block Public Health Units (BPHUs) and Integrated Public Health Laboratories (IPHLs) in all districts to boost disease surveillance and diagnostic capacity. Furthermore, it supports the establishment of Critical Care Hospital Blocks (CCBs) in districts with a population over 5 lakh. At the national level, it funds the setting up of a National Institution for One Health and four New National Institutes for Virology. PM-ABHIM is an addition to the National Health Mission (NHM) and builds on the National Health Policy, 2017. The scheme's allocation for the Centrally Sponsored Scheme component was recently increased to ₹4,200 crore in the Union Budget 2026-27.