Project After Project, All On The Ground
- Sharad Gupta
- Published on 23 Nov 2023, 9:00 am IST
- 2 minutes read
Highlights
- As Joint Secretary in Labour Ministry, Anil Swarup conceptualised and launched Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, first ever health insurance scheme for Below Poverty Line (BPL) people
- The Scheme provided cashless, paperless and fully portable health insurance worth Rs 30,000 per annum to 35 crore people, through a smart card - a first for any government
- Many years later Mr Swarup - despite being School Education Secretary- helped Health Ministry formulate much-acclaimed health insurance scheme - Ayushman Bharat Yojana
- Lesson for young officers - efficiency is recognised by every government, sycophancy doesn't always pay
In this interview on camera, former IAS officer Anil Swarup traverses later part of his 38-years long career to describe situations in which he was asked to conceptualise and launch the first-ever health insurance scheme launched by a government in India. He narrates how did he start from a blank to realise Rashtriya Swsthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) a scheme that not only helped the poor get top-class medical services from private sector as well, in time that too with almost zero expenditure, but also earned the country international acclaim.
The scheme was completely paperless, cashless and fully portable. A BPL person from one state could avail best medical facilities in any other part of the country through a smart card using a 64-kb chip. India in 2007 didn’t have robust internet facilities like today and hence RSBY was a boon for the poor. The scheme also became the basis of Ayushman Bharat Yojana, launched by Modi government.
Please watch the interview for more details….Related Stories
In this interview Mr Swarup also describes how despite being School Education Secretary in Government of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi availed of his advice and services for the scheme launched by the Health Ministry.
Mr Swarup has written three books – Not Just A Civil Servant, No More A Civil Servant and Ethical Dilemmas of A Civil Servant and his fourth book ‘Encounters with Politicians’ is expected to be released soon.
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