Ayurveda's Global Push Rests on Evidence, Standards and a Growing Ayush Economy
India's Ayush economy and domestic adoption are expanding as Ayurveda seeks global credibility through research, standards and WHO frameworks.
Ayurveda is shifting from the periphery of global health discussions towards the mainstream, buoyed by an expanding Ayush economy, growing domestic reliance on traditional systems and rising interest in wellness and medical value travel. The 11th Ayurveda Day, observed on September 23, 2026, with the theme "Ayurveda for a Healthier Tomorrow", arrives as India works to align its centuries-old knowledge system with modern research, quality benchmarks and international healthcare frameworks.
An expanding economic base
The Ayush market grew from USD 2.85 billion in 2014 to USD 43.4 billion in 2023, while exports rose from USD 1.09 billion to USD 2.16 billion over the same period. Government measures aimed at strengthening MSMEs and startups have helped build a wider ecosystem for entrepreneurship, innovation and investment in the sector.
Domestic acceptance has deepened alongside this growth. The first exclusive All-India Survey on Ayush, carried out by the National Sample Survey Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation between July 2022 and June 2023, covered 1,81,298 households — 1,04,195 rural and 77,103 urban. It recorded awareness levels of 94.8 per cent in rural areas and 96 per cent in urban areas, and found that 46.3 per cent of rural residents and 52.9 per cent of urban residents had used Ayush for treatment or prevention in the preceding 365 days. Ayurveda emerged as the most commonly used Ayush system for treatment.
Medical value travel and policy direction
India has moved to tap global demand for holistic healthcare through medical value travel. An Ayush Visa for foreign nationals seeking treatment under Ayush systems was introduced on July 27, 2023, and the Government has partnered with the India Tourism Development Corporation to identify tourism circuits with potential for Ayurveda and other traditional systems. The global medical value travel market, estimated at USD 115.6 billion in 2022, is projected to reach roughly USD 286.1 billion by 2030.
A key policy step was NITI Aayog's "Strategic Roadmap for Making Ayurveda Global", released in July 2026. Envisaged as a long-term pathway up to 2047, it addresses regulation and standards, research, education, international collaboration, exports, branding and medical value travel, and stresses quality standards, robust infrastructure, credible research, trained professionals, consistent products and internationally recognisable regulatory frameworks.
Global frameworks and cooperation
The WHO Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034, adopted by the 78th World Health Assembly in 2025, provides a framework for strengthening evidence, ensuring safety and regulation, integrating traditional medicine into health systems and optimising its cross-sectoral contribution. India has been a significant participant in this effort. The WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat, was established in 2022 with India as lead investor, committing an estimated USD 250 million towards its establishment, infrastructure and operations. The Centre focuses on evidence and learning, data and analytics, sustainability and equity, and innovation and technology.
Two WHO Global Summits on Traditional Medicine have reflected India's role. The first, held in Gandhinagar in August 2023 and co-hosted by WHO and the Government of India, produced the Gujarat Declaration. The second, held in New Delhi from December 17 to 19, 2025, under the theme "Restoring Balance for People and Planet: The Science and Practice of Well-being", addressed evidence, health-system integration, regulation, biodiversity, indigenous knowledge, intellectual property and innovation. It yielded the Delhi Declaration and SMART — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound — commitments towards implementing the WHO strategy.
Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani have also entered global health classification frameworks. In January 2024, WHO launched Traditional Medicine Module 2 of ICD-11, covering morbidity codes for these systems and allowing their conditions to be documented and reported through an internationally comparable framework. WHO has clarified that inclusion does not amount to endorsement of the scientific validity or efficacy of individual traditional medicine practices. Work is progressing on intervention codes for the three systems.
The evidence question
Credible scientific evidence remains central to Ayurveda's future. The Ministry of Ayush's Ayush Research Portal, a Government repository, currently displays more than 43,000 research entries. This growing body of work can support scientific understanding of Ayurveda and the development of credible standards, services and products, while preserving the system's distinctive principles and knowledge remains essential to its responsible and sustainable development.
As India marks the 11th Ayurveda Day, the emerging picture is of a traditional health system entering a new phase of global engagement, with its international trajectory increasingly dependent on evidence, innovation, quality, professional capacity and responsible globalisation.