PM Modi Announces AYUSH Visa To Facilitate Foreign Nationals To Travel To India For AYUSH Therapy

Ayush sector is growing significantly and it is projected to reach 23 billion US dollars by the end of this year, said WHO Chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

India will soon introduce a special Ayush visa category to facilitate foreign nationals to travel to the country for AYUSH therapy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made this announcement while inaugurating the Global Ayush Investment & Innovation Summit 2022 at Gandhinagar, Gujarat on Wednesday.

In his inaugural speech, Modi said, "We are already witnessing unprecedented growth in the production of Ayush medicines, supplements and cosmetics. In 2014, where the Ayush sector was less than $3 billion, today it has increased to more than $18 billion. An unprecedented effort has been made in the past years to promote the export of Ayush products."

Modi announced several new initiatives in Ayush sector, including a special Ayush mark for Ayush products. The government believes that it will give people all over the world the confidence of quality Ayush products.

In addition, the government has set a plan to develop a network of Ayush parks to encourage the promotion, research and manufacturing of Ayush products across the country. It also announced a new category named 'Ayush Aahar' to facilitate the producers of herbal nutritional supplements.

Describing the current age, the era of unicorns, the Prime Minister informed that 14 Indian start-ups have joined the Unicorn Club in the year 2022 itself. "I am sure unicorns will emerge from our Ayush start-ups very soon," he stated.

Moreover, Modi announced the launch of Ayush Export Promotion Council and four Ayush ICT initiatives which includes Ayush Information Hub, AyuSoft, Ayush Next and Ayush GIS. He also released a comic book named 'Professor Ayushman', which describes how Ayush systems and products helped in fighting not only COVID-19 but other diseases also.

Global Ayush Investment & Innovation Summit 2022

The three-day Ayush global summit, which will continue till April 22, will witness a dialogue with entrepreneurs, industry, start-ups and other stakeholders to encourage them to increase investment for innovation in Ayush.

Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Union Minister for AYUSH Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister of Gujarat, Bhupendra Patel, Dr. Munjpara Mahendra Kalubhai, Minister of State and ambassadors, along with many foreign dignitaries, investors, industry experts and stakeholders attended the inaugural session of the summit.

The inaugural session also witnessed the signing of five Memorandum of Understanding among global institutions and governments. These include

1. MoU between Rashtriya Ayurveda Vidyapeeth (RAV) and Argentina
2. Tripartite MoU between All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) and Brazil on the establishment of academic collaboration in Ayurveda.
3. MoU between All Indian Institute of Ayurveda and University Health Network, Toronto (UHN), Canada
4. MoU for the establishment of the Ayurveda Chair at Universidad Aut noma de Nuevo Le n (UANL), Mexico
5. MoU between NIA, Jaipur and Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC) on cooperation in the field of Ayurveda and other Traditional System of medicine.

On this occasion, awards were also distributed to the winners of 'Ayush Start-up Challenge' organised by All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) in association with Start-up India.

Ayush industry to reach 23 billion US dollars by 2022 end

In his address, Dr. Tedros said that the Ayush sector is growing significantly by 17 percent per year since 2014, and it is projected to reach 23 billion US dollars by the end of this year.

He added, "We are exploring innovative study designs and the use of artificial intelligence to document the impact of traditional medicine practices, in cases when standard randomized trials are not possible or are difficult to undertake. Strengthening the evidence base of traditional medicine should facilitate its use by communities, to promote better health outcomes, economic benefits and overall impact."

Ayush Minister Sarbananda Sonowal stated that the Global Ayush Investment & Innovation Summit will help develop awareness among stakeholders about the business opportunities and encourage young entrepreneurs to use of modern technologies and modern innovations to highlight opportunities at global level.

"The deliberations in the Summit are expected to educate the young entrepreneurs about the various possibilities of business development in Ayurveda sector," he added.

He informed that the Ministry of Ayush in collaboration with the Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is developing Entrepreneurship among Ayurveda and other traditional medicines professionals. Ministry of Ayush has also developed the Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) to encourage young entrepreneurs to establish startups in Ayush in line with the Startup India Initiative of Prime Minister.

A day earlier, the Prime Minister had inaugurated the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar.