India's Medical Tourism Slips Off the Table

India's Medical Tourism Slips Off the Table

From The Morning Brief by The Economic Times

April 21, 2026 · 17 min · Episode 941

About this episode

The episode discusses the downturn in India's medical tourism industry and its contributing factors.

India's medical tourism industry is in a quiet downturn. Foreign patient arrivals have fallen roughly a third since 2019 from nearly 700,000 visitors to around 500,000 dragged down by strained ties with Bangladesh, visa processing times stretching up to 60 days, and aggressive competition from Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. A tax incidence on medical referrals threatens to push costs higher just as global insurers remain largely unempanelled with Indian hospitals. The silver lining: average revenue per patient is rising, as high-value procedures like oncology and cardiac surgery now dominate. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to ET’s Forum Gandhi and  pharma editor Vikas Dandekar about the problem, its reasons and fixes. Listen in: You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026? , How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z , Two Women Fought to Change India's Maternity Laws...and Succeeded , Can India Truly End Naxalism? , Semaglutide Goes Generic: Big Pharma’s Moat Breaks   and much more . Catch the latest episode of ‘The…

People in this episode

Host: Anirban Chowdhury

Guests: Forum Gandhi, Vikas Dandekar

Topics covered

  • medical tourism
  • healthcare
  • international relations
  • economic impact
  • patient care

Keywords

  • medical tourism
  • India
  • foreign patients
  • healthcare competition
  • visa processing

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, The Economic Times

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