Piyush Goyal Sets 10-Million Target for Medical Value Tourism in India

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has set an ambitious goal for India: attracting 10 million medical value tourists every year. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of Sanjeevani 2026 during the Bharat Health Global Expo 2026, on 7th September in New Delhi, Goyal laid out a roadmap to turn India into a trusted global destination for healthcare and wellness.

Five-Point Action Plan to Strengthen India's Medical Value Tourism

Goyal outlined five key priorities to build a stronger, more trustworthy healthcare tourism ecosystem:

1. Skilled and certified caregivers: The first priority is training and certifying caregivers to create a workforce capable of delivering healthcare that meets international standards. A well-trained pool of nurses, technicians and caregivers builds the foundation for trust among foreign patients.
2. Ethical hospital participation: More hospitals should join the Heal in India gateway and publish honest, transparent treatment packages instead of vague or misleading pricing. Goyal warned that hospitals must never attempt to cheat patients, cautioning that even a single such incident could seriously damage India's goodwill, credibility and future business in this sector.
3. Seamless patient journey: Insurers and health-tech companies need to build products and platforms that allow timely reimbursements and wider cashless payment options, removing financial friction for international patients. He also highlighted teleconsultation and telemedicine as valuable tools that can support patients even before they physically travel to India.
4. Global visibility and verified hospitals: Goyal called for exhibitions, presentations, and facilitator tie-ups with hospitals worldwide to promote India's healthcare offerings. Crucially, he insisted that international patients should be treated only at hospitals accredited, verified and panelled under NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers), ensuring a consistent quality benchmark.
5. State-level quality expansion: States must prioritise quality in hospitals and wellness centres, expand their healthcare networks, and make good facilities globally visible. He added that medical value tourism should spread beyond metro cities into tier-II and tier-III cities, generating jobs, boosting local business, and simultaneously strengthening healthcare infrastructure for Indian patients too.

Goyal also proposed building a pool of interpreters fluent in different international languages, to help foreign patients communicate clearly and feel more confident throughout their treatment. Running through all five priorities was one consistent message: quality, professional integrity and zero tolerance for corruption in healthcare certification must remain non-negotiable as India scales up this sector.

Equal Treatment to Indian and Foreign Patients

The minister was clear that healthcare quality must be identical for Indian and international patients, with no discrimination based on income or origin. He pointed out that India offers strong clinical expertise and modern technology at costs 60-80% lower than developed nations, backed by a solid base of doctors, nurses, and traditional medicine systems like Ayurveda, Yoga and Unani.

Bigger Opportunities Across Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Manufacturing

Minsiter Goyal noted that around 3.5 million patients have already benefited from India's medical tourism ecosystem over the last seven years. Scaling this to 10 million annually, he said, would create major opportunities across pharmaceutical manufacturing, medical equipment production, hospital infrastructure and allied healthcare services — while keeping trust, ethics and quality at the core of India's growth story