Govt. efforts to boost the medical tourism sector in India: UPSC Daily Important Topic | 26 March 2023

Govt. efforts to boost the medical tourism sector in India:

✅Streamlining Medical Value Travel (MVT): A segment that attracted 0.7 million foreign tourists in pre-pandemic 2019.

✅Heal in India Initiative: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Ayush have been working with C-DAC and the Services Export Promotion Council for developing a One Step Heal in India portal for the Promotion of MVT.

✅Champion Service Sector Scheme: The Ministry of Ayush developed a Central Sector Scheme for MVT to incentivise private investors for the establishment of Super Specialty Hospitals, etc.

✅e-Tourist Visa scheme: It was liberalised and renamed as an e-Visa scheme and at present, it has e-Medical Visa and e-Medical Attendant Visa as sub-categories of e-visa.

✅National Medical & Wellness Tourism Board (NMWTB): The Ministry of Tourism constituted the Board in 2015 to provide a dedicated institutional framework to take forward the cause of promotion of Medical and Wellness Tourism.