Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday said government is committed to providing quality health care within the country and outside through promoting the service sector.

Speaking via video conferencing at an event organised by FICCI, Prabhu said, "We have set aside almost Rs 5,000 Cr or approximately 700 million dollars for enhancing the overall services sector including healthcare."

Sudhanshu Pandey, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, said that it is extremely important that the healthcare facilities are affordable as only then more and more people can access quality healthcare.

"Our efforts in India have been to reduce the cost of healthcare services, while we take our journey towards universal coverage, we try to offer and share our resources with the global citizens," he added.

He further said that India itself carries a very large disease burden and is trying to come up with programs and policies, latest one being Ayushman Bharat Scheme, where effort have been made to extend a wide insurance coverage to the Indian citizens numbering over 500 million so that they can have access to better health care facilities.

Sangita Reddy, Vice President, FICCI & Executive Director Apollo Hospitals Group said, "India is unparalleled in delivering quality medical care at one tenth of the global cost, and aims to transform this sector so that India becomes an epicenter of Medical Value Travel." 

She further added that we will continue to work on better facilities, translation, food, and outstanding medical services for our foreign patients. Our doors are open, our hearts are open, and our facilities are on par with the best.

Devlina Chakravarty, Co-Chair-FICCI MVT Committee & MD, Artemis Hospitals said that India has more than 1600 NABH accredited facilities, & 32 JCI accredited hospitals.

"Cost is not the only differentiator for India when it comes to medical value travel, we are also known for our talent," she added.

On the occasion 'FICCI-EY Knowledge Paper on Medical Tourism in India' was also released by FICCI in association with Ernst and Young.