Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission: India's digital health backbone crosses 104 crore records

📌 Summary:

• ABDM has built one of the world's largest digital health ecosystems: over 104 crore health records linked to 93 crore+ ABHA accounts
• Launched September 2021 to create an integrated, citizen-centric national digital health ecosystem, advancing Universal Health Coverage
• ABHA number: a 14-digit unique health identifier (like Aadhaar) linking records across hospitals, labs, insurers and health programmes via consent
• Core building blocks: ABHA number, Healthcare Professionals Registry, Health Facility Registry, Unified Health Interface (UHI — 'UPI for healthcare'), Aarogya Setu 2.0
• Enables secure record management, time-bound revocable consent-based sharing, portability across ABDM-enabled facilities, and anonymised data for planning and AI
• Aarogya Setu 2.0 (launched 29 June 2026 by Health Minister J.P. Nadda) repurposes the COVID contact-tracing app into a citizen Personal Health Record (PHR) gateway
• Milestone: crossed 100 crore linked records in May 2026

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 Governance / e-governance and health — digital public infrastructure (DPI) for health, consent-based data architecture, and progress toward Universal Health Coverage.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• ABHA number is 14 digits
• ABDM launched September 2021; UHI is the 'UPI for healthcare' open network
• Aarogya Setu 2.0 launched 29 June 2026 by Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda

🔑 Key Term: Unified Health Interface (UHI) — an open, interoperable network enabling discovery of and access to digital health services across apps, analogous to UPI in payments.