Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana – 2009

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December 17th, 2009 Leave a comment Visited 224 times, 1 so far today





Aiming to provide quality health benefits to the “Aam Aadmi”

· RSBY - Health Insurance scheme for BPL families which covers expenses for hospitalization

· First ever Smart Card Forum of India summit on RSBY held in the capital yesterday

· Summit showcased technology and business perspective of the RSBY scheme

New Delhi, December 17, 2009: The first ever Smart Card Forum of India (SCAFI) summit on ‘Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana’ (RSBY) – a joint initiative of Smart Card Forum of India (SCAFI) and the Government of India was held yesterday in New Delhi. The one-day Summit was the first multi-stakeholder effort to create a single platform to share and shape the future of RSBY scheme which is one of the most successful social engineering e-Governance programs undertaken by the government in a Public-Private Partnership initiative. The Summit was groundbreaking as it offered a genuine confluence of ideas in a unique meeting of leaders, policy-makers, industry players, voluntary and non-governmental organizations of every possible kind, and top-level thinkers and speakers.

The aim of this summit was to bring together members from the industry and government to showcase the technology and business perspective of the RSBY scheme. Speakers shared their perspectives on technology implementation, operational challenges, scope expansion of the scheme, business processes for scalability, technology optimization and standardization, quality assurance and standardization of equipments and products.

Mr. Anil Swarup, Director General, Labour Welfare, Ministry of Labour & Employment, whose department has been the chief architect behind this scheme congratulated all governmental agencies and industry participants on a success well deserved and cautioned the participants on the need to continuously evolve the RSBY model for its sustained growth.

While setting the pace for the Summit, Mr. Sanjeev Shriya, Managing Director, Smart Chip Limited remarked, “To my mind RSBY today is taking the shape of a “framework” – rather than just a scheme - which in our opinion can help lay the fundamental architecture for executing similar inclusion and benefit rollout initiatives, not just in India but across the globe, especially in countries where conditions similar to India prevail.”

Mr. Swarup commended the role of smartcards in the RSBY revolution and remarked, “The use of smartcards is a landmark in the field of health insurance. It has the potential to trigger transparent delivery of other benefits as well to the poorest of the poor. It is an idea that can change the world.” Mr. Shriya concurred with the role of smartcards and reflecting on the remarkable growth of an industry he helped create more than a decade ago, he added, “Smartcards have led to empowerment of citizens by effectively preventing denial of services to rightful recipients”.

In his speech during the inaugural session, Mr. M. Parmeswaran – (President) SCAFI & Ex Director – UTI Technologies Services Pvt. Ltd emphasised the importance and the need for technology implementation for projects of such large scale and magnitude. “SCAFI is a non-profit, multi-industry organization promoting the wide spread acceptance of multiple application smartcard. Today as Members of SCAFI we are committed to provide the best possible framework for any Government initiatives be it the RSBY or the massive and one of the most ambitious Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) project which is currently underway under the leadership of Mr. Nandan Nilekani. As an industry body I strongly feel that this is possible only in close cooperation and partnership with all and we therefore welcome the engagement of the stakeholders in all future projects that will benefit the common people.” he said.

In his message to the forum, Shri.Gulam Nabi Azad, Hon’ble Union Minister for Health And Family Welfare said, ‘I am pleased to learn that SCAFI has taken initiative to organise First Summit on Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana scheme. I am also happy to learn that all the stakeholders such as insurance companies, system integration companies, third party administrators and the World Bank is guiding the scheme in its true spirit and the benefit for which it was envisaged for the BPL families at minimum cost. I am committed to support all such initiatives and wish all the best for this summit. ’

Mr. Robert Palacios, Lead Social Protection – World Bank also shared his thoughts on the RSBY scheme and said, ‘The RSBY is truly a revolutionary initiative and is a potential role model for other social sector schemes. It is truly remarkable as it has been designed from the perspective of the beneficiary; the transactions involved are simple and give choice to the beneficiary – all essential elements for a scheme such as this. The success of RSBY can be gauged from the fact that other countries have approached the World Bank regarding technical advice for rolling out similar schemes in their respective countries. I congratulate the entire RSBY eco-system for its success and hope to double the number of families under the RSBY scheme by next year.’

In addition to the ‘Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana’ (RSBY) initiative the summit offered numerous opportunities for discussion and networking. During the sessions experts outlined success stories as well as challenges for States in implementing the RSBY schemes finally leading to a conscious decision that States need to opt for more of such schemes / initiatives that would go on to benefit people living below the poverty line.

The Summit, organized by the Smart Card Forum of India (SCAFI), was well represented by all sections of the RSBY eco-system including dignitaries from Union and State Ministries, leaders from prime governmental agencies such as National Informatics Centre, industry luminaries, insurance firms, Third Party Administrators, smartcard manufacturers, system integrators and service providers.

About SCAFI:

The forum is a non-profit, multi-industry organization promoting the wide spread acceptance of multiple application smart card technology. The Forum has leading companies in banking, financial services, telecommunications, computer, technology, health care, retail, entertainment industries, as well as a number of government agencies as members. The convergence of these major industry players is unprecedented and represents a shared vision and commitment to providing an interoperable platform for the delivery of a new generation of products and services based on smart card technology.

For further information, please contact:

Ms. Harima Bajaj

Smart Chip Limited

Mobile: 9873915462

Or,

Prem Subedi / Ayonava Bagchi

I:Connect Enterprise - PR

Mobile: 9810868873 / 9818776505

Email: prem {at} iconnectenterprise(.)com / ayonava {at} iconnectenterprise(.)com

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