Prime Minister Narendra Modi today announced his government’s decision to soon launch AYUSH visas and develop a network of AYUSH parks to encourage the promotion, research, and manufacturing of AYUSH products across the country.

The AYUSH visa would help people to visit India for AYUSH treatment and the AYUSH parks would give a new direction to AYUSH manufacturing in India, he said while inaugurating the ”Global AYUSH Investment & Innovation Summit” at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus were among those present on the occasion.

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The three-day summit will help uncover investment potential and give a fillip to innovation, research & development, start-up ecosystem, and the wellness industry.

The PM spoke at length about the unprecedented efforts made in the past years 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 in the last few years. “Our 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.

pointing out the strides made by the AYUSH sector, the PM 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.”

He said the Ministry of AYUSH has taken several major steps to encourage startup culture in the field of traditional medicines. A few days back an incubation centre developed by the All India Institute of Ayurveda was inaugurated, he informed.

Describing the current age as the era of unicorns, Modi said that in the year 2022 itself, so far 14 start-ups from India have joined the Unicorn Club. “I am sure unicorns will emerge from our AYUSH start-ups very soon,” he added.

Noting that the production of medicinal plants can be a good means of increasing the income and livelihood of the farmers and the scope of employment generation in this, the PM highlighted the importance of a facility to easily connect with the market for the farmers involved in the production of medicinal plants. For this, the government was also working on the modernisation and expansion of the AYUSH e-marketplace, he said.

WHO chief Ghebreyesus praised the AYUSH Ministry for fostering the spirit of a collection of data for research in traditional medicine. Noting the rising global demand and investment in the AYUSH products, the DG said the whole world was coming to India and India was going to the whole world.