Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana
Also called: PMSSY · Topic: Human Capital: Education, Health and Demographic Dividend · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) is a health scheme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, announced in August 2003. It has two aims. The first is to fix regional imbalances in tertiary healthcare, which means specialised, super-specialty care that patients usually reach on referral from a lower-level hospital. The second is to improve medical education. It works in two ways: it sets up new AIIMS, and it upgrades existing Government Medical Colleges and Institutions (GMCIs). It is a Central Sector Scheme, so the Centre pays the full cost, even though health is a State subject. It matters for human capital because it brings top-level care closer to people and also trains doctors and nurses.
Example
PMSSY has approved 22 new AIIMS, and 18 of them were fully working in 2026. The first-phase AIIMS were at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh. A patient in Odisha can now get specialist care at AIIMS Bhubaneswar and does not have to travel to Delhi. The scheme has also approved 75 projects to upgrade GMCIs.
Don't confuse with
- Centrally Sponsored Scheme: the Centre and the states share the cost of such a scheme. PMSSY is fully Centre-funded.
- Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY (2018): this is hospital insurance that pays for a family's treatment. PMSSY builds the hospitals and colleges themselves.