Uttarakhand to bring out policy to promote spiritual eco-zones

Mumbai, Feb 18 () Uttarakhand government is likely to soon come up with a special policy for promoting 'spiritual eco-zones' in the state, and has already identified locations for setting up such zones, a senior official said.

Meanwhile, the state is organising a two-day 'Uttarakhand Wellness Summit 2020' in April in Dehradun to promote it as a wellness destination apart from a tourism spot.

"We are working on a policy to develop many spiritual eco-zones across the state, also known as 'Devbhoomi' (God's land). Uttarakhand is blessed with spiritual diversities and we want to explore this potential for overall development of the state," Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh told here.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been promoting the idea of creating such zones in Uttarakhand as it could efficiently build on its inherent strengths and elevate the state to be a global spiritual economic zone.

The thought behind creating such zones is to create special ecosystem for yoga, panchakarma and ayurvedic practices and capitalise on the global wellness economy, which was worth USD 4.2 trillion in 2017 and is growing at 6.4 per cent annually.

"Initially, we have identified the key locations like Rishikesh, Almora, Tehri and the Gangotri and Yamunotri areas, among others, where we will promote the development of such zones," Singh said.

He further said the wellness summit organised on April 17 and 18 is also a step in the direction to promote the state as a wellness destination and drive investments in these zones.

"We will be taking suggestions from investors during the summit and accordingly fine tune the policy. Meanwhile, the government is working towards improving connectivity in the state," Singh said.

Earlier in the day, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat invited investors from Mumbai to visit the summit and invest in the state.

"In 2018, when we had organised 'Destination Uttarakhand', we had received an overwhelming response. As many as Rs 1.25 lakh crore worth of memoranda of understanding were signed then and nearly Rs 21,000 crore worth of investments have already come in. We are expecting a similar response for this summit as well," the chief minister said.

The state is expecting nearly 200 investors to attend the summit.

"We have very strong upticks, be it yoga, ayurveda or meditation. The state has undertaken various business reforms as prescribed by the World Bank and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade under ease of doing business initiative. We are optimistic about attracting added investments into the wellness sector, including physical infrastructure," Rawat added. PSK RVK