New Delhi, December 26: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often chosen to dress in the traditional attire of a region while attending an event related to it, and it was a Kashmiri 'pheran' on Saturday as he launched the Ayushman Bharat scheme to extend health insurance benefits to all residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources close to the prime minister said he had received the pheran as a gift in winters last year from a farm labourer from Jammu and Kashmir. Modi had planned to wear this during his visit to the region, but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that such a trip could not materialise. PM Narendra Modi Launches AB-PMJAY SEHAT Scheme For Jammu And Kashmir; Know All About The Health Insurance Scheme.

He took the opportunity of the launch of the scheme through video-conference on Saturday to wear the "special gift", the sources said. He has also been recently donning Bengali shawls multiple times in his virtual programmes.