By Nayan Dave,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that his government will introduce a special AYUSH visa category to promote AYUSH medical tourism with a theme — ‘Heal in India’. While inaugurating Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit at Gandhinagar, PM announced that the Centre will develop a network of AYUSH parks to encourage the promotion, research and manufacturing of AYUSH products across the country.
India is witnessing unprecedented growth in ayurveda, yoga, naturopathy, unani, siddha and homeopathy (AYUSH) medicines, supplements and cosmetics as the AYUSH sector increased from less than $3 million in 2014 to over $18 million currently, Prime Minister added.
“The ministry of AYUSH has taken several major steps to encourage start-up culture in the field of traditional medicines. A few days back an incubation centre developed by All India Institute of Ayurveda was inaugurated. During the first four months of the current calendar year, as many as 14 start-ups from India have joined the Unicorn Club,” said PM Modi, adding that in coming days unicorns from AYUSH start-ups will also emerge.
The AYUSH sector has huge potential to contribute in increasing farmers’ income as well as generating a plethora of employment opportunities across the country, said Modi. The government is working towards developing a facility to connect medicinal plant growers directly to the market. For the purpose AYUSH e-market place will be modernised and expanded, he added.
“The central government is making efforts to promote the export of AYUSH products. Emphasis has been laid on mutual recognition of AYUSH drugs with other countries. For this more than 50 MOUs have been signed with different countries. Besides, AYUSH experts are developing ISO standards in collaboration with the Bureau of Indian Standards. This will open a huge export market for AYUSH in more than 150 countries,” he said.
Modi said that FSSAI has announced a new category named ‘AYUSH Aahar’ in its regulations last week. It would greatly facilitate the producers of herbal nutritional supplements, he said, adding that India is also going to make a special AYUSH mark. This mark will be applied to the highest quality AYUSH products, he added.
