Government introduces a new category of Ayush Visa
Recently the Union Home Ministry has notified the creation of a new category of AYUSH visa for foreign nationals for treatment under AYUSH systems/Indian systems of medicine. It will be called ‘Ayush (AY)’.
Under this, after Chapter 11- Medical Visa of the Visa Manual, a new chapter i.e. Chapter 11A- AYUSH Visa has been included, which deals with treatment under Indian medical systems. Accordingly, necessary amendments have been made in various chapters of Visa Manual, 2019.
It may be noted that the Prime Minister had announced the creation of a special AYUSH visa category to facilitate the travel of foreign nationals seeking AYUSH treatment to India at the Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit (GA IIS) in Gujarat in April 2022.
Benefits of AYUSH Visa:
- The introduction of the AYUSH visa category is part of India’s Roadmap for Heal in India initiative.
- It will promote medical value tourism in India and strengthen the effort to fulfill the vision of making Indian traditional medicine a global phenomenon.
- Ministry of AYUSH and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are working together to develop a one stop Heal in India portal to promote India as a medical tourism destination of the world.
- Medical value travel in India has seen significant growth in recent years. According to the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) report ‘The Global Wellness Economy: Looking Beyond COVID’, the global wellness economy will grow at a rate of 9.9% annually.
Ayush system of medicine
- AYUSH is the short form of medical systems prevalent in India such as Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy.
- The Ministry of AYUSH was formed by the Government of India in 2014 with a view to revive the deep knowledge of traditional Indian medical systems.
- WHO – Global Center for Traditional Medicine (WHO-GCTM), the first and only center of its kind, is coming up in Jamnagar, Gujarat.
- Exclusive AYUSH marks for AYUSH products, AYUSH Parks are being developed to encourage promotion, research and manufacturing of AYUSH products across the country.
Source – The Hindu
