Union Budget 2017: Two new AIIMS for Jharkhand, Gujarat

New Delhi: Country may be in the pink of health again with finance minister Arun Jaitley announcing more than 27 per cent hike in the outlay of Health Budget. With a specific focus on ensuring availability of essential medicines at affordable prices and increasing the availability of skilled manpower in the sector, the finance minister gave a major push to medical education and human resources. Signifiantly, from Rs 37,061.55 crore in 2016-2017, the budget estimate for 2017-2018 at Rs 47,352.51 crore saw an increase of 27.76 per cent.

Importantly, to enhance medical education in the country, Mr Jaitley announced setting up of two new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the states of Gujarat and Jharkhand and also stated adding 25,000 post graduate seats in medicine by pumping in a major chunk of Rs 4,025 crores this time in it, which is an increase of 570 per cent from Rs 600 crore that it got last year. The other big gainer is the new AIIMS under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).