Budget 2026-27: India to have 5 medical tourism hubs soon
What's the story
In the Union Budget 2026-27, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced plans to set up five medical tourism hubs and launch a "Biopharma Shakti programme" with an allocation of ₹10,000 crore over five years. The initiative aims to make India a global leader in medical tourism services by establishing integrated healthcare complexes with private sector collaboration.
Hub details
Integrated healthcare complexes
The proposed medical tourism hubs will be multi-faceted healthcare complexes, combining medical, educational, and research facilities. They will include AYUSH centers, facilitation centers for medical value tourism, and infrastructure for diagnostics, post-care services, and rehabilitation. Sitharaman emphasized that these hubs would create a wide range of employment opportunities for health professionals such as doctors and allied health professionals (ALPs).
Expansion plans
Biopharma Shakti program
Along with the medical tourism hubs, Sitharaman also proposed to set up three new All India Institute of Ayurveda. The Biopharma Shakti program will create a biopharma-focused network with three new National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERS) and upgrade seven existing ones. It will also establish a network of 1,000 accredited clinical trial sites in India.
Regulatory enhancements
Strengthening CDSCO for global standards
The Finance Minister also proposed strengthening the Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to meet global standards and approval timeframes. This will be done through a dedicated scientific review cadre and specialists. The move is aimed at expediting drug approvals while maintaining high safety and efficacy standards, further bolstering India's position in the global biopharmaceutical industry.