As yoga and Ayurveda become part of India’s global health diplomacy

Why in the News

India’s recent trade agreements now carry written commitments on traditional medicine. The India-Oman Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), operationalised in June 2026, carries what the government describes as its first comprehensive commitment on traditional medicine across all modes of supply. The India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) adds a dedicated health and traditional medicine annex. Together these agreements move Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) from a cultural export to a formalised health services opportunity. Practitioners of these systems now have a treaty basis for licensing, standards and mobility abroad. The contest is over what that basis is worth, since formal recognition converts into market access only where evidence, regulation and practitioner quality satisfy the host regulator.

What have India’s recent trade agreements committed on traditional medicine?

1. The Oman agreement sets the benchmark: The India-Oman CEPA carries the government’s first comprehensive commitment on traditional medicine covering all modes of supply. It came into operation in June 2026.
2. The New Zealand agreement creates a mobility route: The India-New Zealand FTA carries a dedicated health and traditional medicine annex covering AYUSH practices. It provides a structured mobility pathway with a dedicated visa quota for AYUSH practitioners.
3. The European Union agreement goes furthest on qualifications: The India-European Union FTA, signed in January 2026, allows AYUSH practitioners to use their Indian qualifications in member countries that have no regulatory framework of their own. It also provides for AYUSH wellness centres and clinics.
4. The common obligations are regulatory, not promotional: All three agreements carry measures to ease licensing, develop standards and facilitate the movement of AYUSH practitioners and instructors. The New Zealand agreement additionally institutionalises cooperation on education, training, standards development and wellness services.

What carries the strategy outside the trade agreements?

1. A dedicated visa category: The AYUSH visa was introduced in 2023 for foreign nationals travelling to India for treatment under these systems. Between January 2023 and December 2025, 3,375 people travelled on AYUSH or e-AYUSH visas and another 579 on attendant visas.
2. The earlier reported count: The Ministry of AYUSH had previously reported 1,646 AYUSH visas issued to nationals of 75 countries between January 2024 and February 2025.
3. An education channel: Under the AYUSH Fellowship Scheme, 260 students from 32 countries were studying these systems in Indian institutions. Education operates as a channel of influence alongside treatment.
4. Overseas programming: The Ministry’s international cooperation programmes fund training, seminars, conferences and knowledge exchange. These include yoga instruction and education delivered overseas.

Why can the return on these commitments not be measured?

1. The growth figure is not an AYUSH figure: Foreign medical arrivals in India rose from 1.83 lakh in 2020 to 6.44 lakh in 2024. That count covers medical travel of every kind and not AYUSH patients specifically.
2. No country-wise ranking is published: The government does not publish a current consolidated country-wise ranking of AYUSH patients. The named markets are Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Germany, Russia, Malaysia, Mauritius and Saudi Arabia.
3. The market share is unknown: The absence of consolidated data makes it impossible to assess what share of India’s medical value travel market AYUSH actually holds. A negotiator therefore cannot state the value of the access being sought.
4. The expert objection is about inputs, not demand: Credible standards, an evidence base, regulation, practitioner quality and patient safety are named as the preconditions for these systems to establish themselves in regulated healthcare markets.

Challenges to AYUSH market access abroad

1. Host country law decides the right to practise: Destination markets license practitioners under their own medical statutes, so an Indian qualification carries no automatic right to treat patients. Eg. Ayurveda is recognised in law as a practising profession in only a small set of jurisdictions, Hungary and Switzerland among them.
   The Fix: Negotiate mutual recognition annexes that name the qualifying degree and the permitted scope of practice, rather than a general commitment to cooperate on standards.
2. A thin clinical evidence base: Regulators in evidence-driven markets ask for trial data that most classical formulations do not carry. Eg. The World Health Organization opened its Global Centre for Traditional Medicine at Jamnagar in 2022 to build exactly this evidence and data base.
   The Fix: Fund registered controlled trials on a shortlist of high-volume formulations and publish the protocols, so a foreign regulator can audit the method.
3. Product safety findings block entry: Heavy metal content in some traditional preparations has drawn regulatory action in importing countries. Eg. The United States Food and Drug Administration has issued import alerts against Ayurvedic products over lead and mercury contamination.
   The Fix: Make batch-level heavy metal testing and certification mandatory before export, with the results carried on the product label.
4. Domestic advertising undercuts the regulatory case: Cure claims made without trial evidence at home weaken the argument for recognition abroad. Eg. The Supreme Court held Patanjali Ayurved in contempt in 2024 over advertisements claiming cures for named diseases.
   The Fix: Enforce the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 against AYUSH advertising and publish the penalty orders.

Conclusion

The commitments are in force and the harder work now sits inside India. What a foreign regulator will ask for is what a practitioner has been trained to and what a preparation contains, and neither is currently documented to an auditable standard. India also cannot count its own AYUSH patients separately from medical travellers, so it has no way to report what any of these annexes has delivered. The first practitioner registered abroad on an Indian qualification, and the first published count of AYUSH-specific arrivals, are the two markers that will show whether this is trade access or an announcement.

Back2Basics

1. Ministry of AYUSH: Formed in November 2014 by upgrading the Department of AYUSH, which itself succeeded the Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy set up in 1995.
2. Mandate: It administers education, research, drug standardisation and practice regulation for the six recognised systems.
3. Education regulators: The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine and the National Commission for Homoeopathy, both created by 2020 statutes, regulate education and registration in place of the earlier central councils.
4. Drug regulation: AYUSH medicines are regulated under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and the rules made under it.

[2026] The Chancellor of Germany visited India in January 2026. Which of the following is/are NOT correct in terms of outcomes?

1. MoU between All India Institute of Ayurveda and University of Hamburg

2. MoU on Youth Hockey Development between Hockey India and German Hockey Federation

3. Establishment of a bilateral dialogue mechanism on the Indo-Pacific

4. Opening of an Honorary Consul of Germany in Lucknow

(a) 2 and 3 (b) 1 and 4 (c) 3 and 4 (d) 1 only