By T N Ashok
From organ transplantation to robotic joint replacement and corneal grafts, India is emerging as one of the world’s most competitive destinations for high-end medical care. But the medical-tourism boom comes with an important caveat: organ transplantation is not simply a procedure that a foreign patient can buy.
The country’s attraction is no longer confined to cataract surgery, dental treatment or cosmetic procedures. Increasingly, patients from South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia and, in smaller but significant numbers, Britain, Europe and the United States are arriving for complex cardiac surgery, cancer care, orthopaedics, bariatric surgery and organ transplantation.
The numbers are striking. 507,244 foreign nationals came to India specifically for medical treatment in 2025, according to the government, making medical tourism roughly 5.5% of foreign tourist arrivals. Bangladesh remains overwhelmingly the largest source market, followed by Iraq, Uzbekistan, Somalia, Turkmenistan, Oman and Kenya.
The attraction is straightforward: a combination of internationally trained doctors, high-volume hospitals, sophisticated intensive-care facilities and prices that can be a fraction of those in the United States and Western Europe.
But there is an important misconception to correct at the outset. The proposition that large numbers of “uninsured elderly Americans and Europeans” are coming to India for organ transplants is too broad. Most Americans over 65 have Medicare, while Britain and much of Europe have universal or heavily subsidised healthcare.
The more accurate story is about under-insured, self-paying, privately insured or internationally mobile patients seeking faster access, lower out-of-pocket costs, particular specialists or procedures unavailable or difficult to obtain at home. And transplantation has an additional complication: a foreigner cannot simply arrive in India and purchase a kidney or liver.
India performed 18,911 organ transplants in 2024, including 13,476 kidney, 4,901 liver and 253 heart transplants. More than 15,500 of those were living-donor transplants. The country’s transplant machine has expanded dramatically. Total organ transplants increased from 4,990 in 2013 to 18,911 in 2024. The comparable official national series therefore covers 2013-24 rather than a full 20 years. Across those 12 years, the country performed roughly 135,000 organ transplants of all types.
Kidney transplantation is the workhorse. The 2013-24 series records roughly 117,000 kidney transplants, reflecting India’s enormous living-donor programme. India is now ranked first globally in living-donor kidney transplantation and third in total kidney transplantation.
Foreigners are a significant part of the story — but not quite in the way a casual medical-tourism brochure might suggest. In 2023, 1,851 foreign nationals received organ transplants in India, approximately 10% of all recipients. Yet only nine involved deceased-donor organs; 1,842 were living-donor transplants. Delhi-NCR alone accounted for 1,445.
That distinction is crucial. Under India’s Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, a living donor must generally be a near relative. If either donor or recipient is a foreign national, additional scrutiny by the Authorisation Committee is required. An Indian citizen cannot simply sell a kidney to a foreign patient.
Indeed, the government has recently tightened monitoring after reports of possible commercial dealings involving foreign recipients. NOTTO has warned states about the increase in foreign transplants and ordered closer scrutiny.
So India is a major transplant destination, but “transplant tourism” must not be confused with buying an organ.
For kidney transplantation, Sandeep Guleria at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals is among the country’s best-known transplant surgeons, with more than three decades of experience and expertise in renal transplantation. Apollo’s Delhi programme is one of the major destinations for international patients.
Other major kidney centres include Medanta Gurugram, Max Healthcare Delhi, Fortis, AIIMS, Manipal and Apollo’s Chennai and Hyderabad programmes.
For liver transplantation, Arvinder Singh Soin at Medanta – The Medicity is one of India’s most prominent names. Medanta says Dr Soin has performed more than 2,500 liver transplants, with the programme reporting a 95% success rate.
Apollo’s major liver programmes in Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad, Max Centre for Liver and Biliary Sciences and the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences in Delhi are other major destinations.
Heart transplantation is a smaller but rapidly developing field. At Apollo Chennai, R Ravi Kumar has been deeply involved in heart failure and transplantation and reports having managed more than 550 heart transplants and over 100 LVAD patients since 2013.
Medanta Gurugram, Apollo Chennai and Hyderabad, Narayana Health Bengaluru, MGM Healthcare Chennai and several major government programmes form India’s principal heart-transplant network.
The much larger opportunity for elderly medical travellers may actually be orthopaedics. A knee or hip replacement does not involve the ethical and legal complexities of organ transplantation. India can therefore offer a relatively straightforward medical-tourism package: consultation, diagnostics, robotic or conventional surgery, implant, hospitalisation, physiotherapy and several weeks of rehabilitation. A single knee replacement in India typically costs about ₹2 lakh-₹3.5 lakh, while bilateral replacement can cost ₹4-7 lakh at Apollo-level pricing. Hip replacement generally runs about ₹2.5-5 lakh, with robotic hip replacement around ₹4-7 lakh. For shoulder replacement, a realistic private-sector range is approximately ₹3-7 lakh, depending upon whether it is total, partial or reverse shoulder replacement and the implant used. (IPA Service)
