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New Delhi, Feb 13 (IANS) During the last five years - from April 2020 to January 2026 – nearly 5.69 crore Ayushman cards have been created under Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.

Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Jadhav, in a written reply, said that as on January 31, 5.77 crore hospital admissions amounting to Rs. 1.15 lakh crore have been authorised for private hospitals, under the scheme.

In response to another question related to Universal immunisation coverage, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel said that as on February 8, 11.12 crore children and 3.78 crore pregnant women are registered on U-WIN portal.

After every vaccination event, beneficiaries can download the QR code-based vaccination certificate from U-WIN portal she said, adding that in 2025, about 8.01 crore beneficiaries were registered in U-WIN and the digital QR code-based certificates were made available to them.

A total of 29.42 crore SMSs including reminder SMSs were sent to the beneficiaries during the year 2025 from U-WIN portal across the country.

The MoS said U-WIN has helped in line-listing of children due for vaccination. These children are digitally mapped on the portal for regular follow-ups with SMS alerts for ensuring their due doses. These children as identified also by the front-line workers, are provided their due vaccination which is duly recorded on U-WIN platform for ensuring completion of their routine immunisation.

To improve health service delivery U-WIN is presently integrated with Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), POSHAN Tracker and SAFEVAC online platforms.

Replying to a question related to medical education, Patel said that according to National Medical Commission (NMC), there is an increase of 48,563 MBBS seats and 29,080 PG seats in the country from Academic Year 2020-21 to 2025-26.

Furthermore, the government has approved the addition of 10,023 medical seats under centrally-sponsored schemes across government colleges from financial year 2025-26 to 2028-29.

The expansion of medical seats reduces the gap in the healthcare workforce, particularly in underserved region and has a direct bearing on the doctor-population ratio across States. The growing number of medical seats, coupled with improvements in infrastructure and faculty, has made domestic institutions more accessible to Indian students, said the statement.

--IANS

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