With an aim to boost trade, government is planning to soon announce a long term multiple-entry comprehensive visa which would merge business, tourist, medical and conference visas all-into-one. As per the new proposed category, tourists, businessmen or people coming for treatment or to attend conferences or even for film shoots all will be covered under the new category. Further, India will offer a multiple-entry 10 year visa where the visitor will not be allowed to stay permanently. Further, if a foreigner is granted long-term, multiple-entry non-working or non-permanent stay visa and his or her stay is restricted to 60 days on a visit, the government may waive the visa fee as well. However, the visitors will have to give biometric details and also fulfill various security requirements.
Moreover, India will not ask for reciprocal visa liberalisation as it is an old concept now. For sensitive countries, the government may consider extending group visa to tourists and business persons. However, discussions are also being held on whether to incorporate the new category visa with the online e-tourist visa on arrival scheme for short term visits.
The new proposed category has been recommended by the Commerce Ministry following a suggestion by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to boost services trade and attract more foreigners. The Home Ministry is working on the proposal and is hopeful to implement it soon.
The proposal for new category visa assumes significance as the services sector constitutes about 60 per cent of India’s GDP but its share in global export of services remains at a low 3.15 per cent. Opportunities worth $80 billion annually lie unused in terms of attracting foreigners and foreign exchanges. Medical tourism in India alone is expected to be valued at $3 billion and projected to grow to $7-8 billion by 2020.