In 1997-8, then IT Minister Bimal Shah and former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel goofed up amongst group of investors in NY when vested interests of govt ministers did not interest investors to start technology outfits in Gujarat.

11 years later, it is still BJP government in Gujarat. Chief Minister is Narendra Modi who makes tall promises on development  and big announcements were made in January 2009 of $242 billion MoU's (Memorandum of Understandings)  signed. In 2009 Vibrant Gujarat Summit, Medical Tourism was also given lot of media coverage.

Ground reality is totally different. Kosansh Health Solutions representative spoke to few hospitals listed on  http://www.vibrantgujarat.com/focus-areas/healthcare.aspx and there is hardly and optimism in these hospital's top management regarding government's policies to grow medical tourism.

Medical Tourism was also identified as a growth sector way back in 2006 http://gujhealth.gov.in/Medical_Tourism/Medical_Tourism1.pdf and in 4 years nothing has happened.

Here are the MoU's signed in 2009 Vibrant Gujarat for Medical Tourism http://gujhealth.gov.in/Medical_Tourism/Vibrant%20Gujrat%20MOUs%20Signed.pdf

Kosansh Health Solutions team was able to contact few people from this list and there is a sort of frustration in them with government. The biggest problem is land allocation. Second problem is branding, awareness and promotion of this sector. After Vibrant Gujarat Summit, government machinery seems to have come to standstill and there is literally no support provided to potential investors. Some investors even said that they didn't wait for government land allocation and now have started to seek out land on their own.

Kosansh Health Solutions even had spoken to Health Commissioner. It looks like government agenda is to work on local government hospitals and spend money in improving them which is good but having short-sight on a fast growing sector like Medical Tourism will mean that Gujarat will again miss a boat to come up strong in a newly emerging industry. Opportunity was there, plan was there, implementation was very poor.

This could be written in history books as failure of Gujarat Government or failure of Narendra Modi. Whatever be the case, Gujarat will be a loser again. Look at how Bangalore and Hyderabad has transformed in last few years as IT destinations. We need to project Gujarat as Global healthcare destination. Government does not seem to be serious. Private Sector is very much ready! 

With projected market size of over $3.3 trillion by 2017 for domestic and international medical tourism tourism industry, and other Indian states coming up with large projects, Gujarat government again seems to have been caught sleeping.