समाचार Samāchār · India · 25 October 2026

Mann Ki Baat marks eSanjeevani’s 50 crore consultations: public telemedicine at scale

In the 139th episode the Prime Minister put the national telemedicine service and 1.9 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs on the record. Primary care in India now often starts on a screen.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the 139th episode of Mann Ki Baat on Sunday to mark a milestone in public health. eSanjeevani, the national telemedicine service, has now handled about 50 crore consultations. He credited technology, the service of doctors and the trust of citizens. He said nearly 1.9 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs now take primary care to the level of the panchayat.

The numbers sit behind the speech. Health ministry figures carried by All India Radio on 6 October put the network at over 19,000 hubs and more than 1.42 lakh Arogya Mandir spokes. Over two lakh healthcare providers are registered. The service runs 2.5 to 3 lakh consultations a day in 15 languages. Women account for more than 57 per cent of use. About 40 per cent of consultations come from citizens aged 46 and above.

This is digital public infrastructure doing for health what UPI did for payments. A patient in a village reaches a doctor at a district hub without a bus ride or a lost day of wages. Prevention is cheaper than a hospital bed. It starts with a primary care network people trust. The credit belongs to the doctors on the hubs and the health workers at the spokes.

The episode also carried the make-and-sell theme. Modi asked citizens to buy locally made goods for Diwali and Chhath. He cited makhana from Purnia in Bihar reaching export markets. He pointed to the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre at IIT Madras. It is building high-resolution 3D maps of the human brain on the Param Shakti supercomputer, with a mission to map 100 brains. The next test for telemedicine is outcomes. Volume proves reach. Lighter queues at hospitals will prove value.

What a founder takes from it: Payments went population-scale through a public rail. Primary health is following the same path. Health builders should treat eSanjeevani as a rail to build around, not a rival.