Ending woes to thousands of people who travel to India to learn Yoga and Ayurveda, the Government of India relaxed-visa norms for tourists wanting to undergo short-term yoga programs. Tourists can now apply for short durational Yoga courses and treatments under the newly launched Electronic Visa (e-Visa) system and even Tourist Visa. This announcement by the government couldn’t have come at a better stop-than this when the Government is promoting Indian-Ayurveda-and Yoga brand internationally.
Welcoming the move by the Government, Kairali Ayurvedic Group’s spokesperson stated-“this is a positive step by the government-as the International Yoga Day is approaching. This relaxation will certainly encourage-more yoga enthusiasts to travel to India. While is true that the new policy will-promote knowledge exchange on yoga, it is equally important to-avoid situations where people have to leave their treatment and courses in the middle because-of the permit hassles.”
A- first, India will give tourist visa and e-tourist visa to foreigners willing to undergo short term course on Yoga in its bid to popularize the ancient spiritual and ascetic practice globally.-
Realising the spread and importance of Yoga world over, the government has decided to include attending a short term yoga programme-in the list of permissible activities under tourist visa.-
Besides, the government has decided to include attending a short term yoga programme-and short duration medical treatment under Indian systems of medicine in the list of permissible activities under e-tourist visa.-
The Ministry of Home Affairs has taken a decision to include short term yoga programme-in tourist visa and e-tourist visa, an official spokesperson said.-
Presently, a tourist visa is granted to a foreigner whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sight seeing and casual visit to meet friends or relatives, short duration medical treatment or casual business visit.-
All Indian Mission abroad and and Foreigners Regional Registration Officers ( FRROs )/ Foreigners Registration Officers (FROs) in the country have been requested to take action as per the latest decision, the spokesperson said.-
TVoA ( tourist visa on arrival ), enabled by Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), popularly known as e-tourist visa scheme, was launched on November 27, 2014.-
Under the e-tourist visa scheme, an applicant receives an email authorizing him or her to travel to India after it is approved and he or she can travel with a print-out of this authorization.-
On arrival, the visitor has to present the authorization to the immigration authorities who would then stamp the entry into the country.-
Till now, the scheme has been extended to 150 countries at 16 Indian airports designated for providing e-tourist visa service.-
Since the launch of the scheme, more than around 9 lakh visas have been issued. At present, on an average, 3,500 e-tourist visas are being granted daily to foreign nationals.-
In addition, Japanese nationals are given visa-on-arrival facility, a move that is expected to boost inflow of tourists and business visitors.-
The visa-on-arrival for Japanese is issued in business, tourist, medical and conference categories. It has a validity of 30 days.
