Thakur pitches for 'Heal in India' to tap wellness sector

new delhi: Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Friday made a strong pitch for marketing India as a hub of healing with a focus on traditional systems of medicine.

He called upon the ministries to work towards Heal in India, noting that Kerala, through Ayurveda, had made huge strides in the wellness sector. The ministries of the government must work together to plan, execute and market the idea of making India a hub of healing, the minister for information and broadcasting said.

He was addressing the valedictory session of Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit 2022 in Gandhinagar.

The minister said AYUSH had immense potential for investment and innovation, and noted that the sector witnessed a turnover of three billion dollars in 2014 and had touched 18 billion dollars in 2022. He expressed hope that the country will soon see several startups and businesses investing in this sector. We must have the right start-up ecosystem, and to that end, we must have the right culture for innovation, incubation and more initiatives, Thakur said.

He noted that while the world was fighting COVID-19, 47 Indian startups had become unicorns in two years.

We need better packaging of our product and this should be complemented with aggressive marketing and branding, Thakur said. The minister said AYUSH Ministry will launch an e-marketplace which could conduct transactions worth crores.