SOUKYA forays into accessible healthcare with SUGHA; international venture in Portugal in the offing

For over two decades, he built SOUKYA into an integrative healthcare destination. Set amidst a sprawling green campus on the outskirts of Bengaluru, the centre has attracted royalty, heads of states, business leaders and patients from more than 125 countries seeking an approach that combines Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Yoga and conventional medicine under one roof.

Despite its global reputation as a premium wellness integrative health destination, Issac Mathai, founder-chairman, managing & medical director of SOUKYA, said the next phase of his work is aimed at making the same model available and accessible to a wider section of the Indian population.

Rather than moving away from SOUKYA’s premium positioning, the new initiative at creating a parallel healthcare ecosystem that is more accessible, insurance-supported and designed for the broader population.

Integrative format

The centrepiece of this strategy is SUGHA, an accessible integrative healthcare initiative beginning with a 100-bed hospital near SOUKYA in Hoskote, on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The long-term plan envisages a network of 1,000 beds over the next five years through multiple 100-bed centres across cities including Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kochi, besides tier-two cities. The first hospital under SUGHA format is scheduled to open mid-2027 in Hoskote.

Dr. Mathai said, “The model may be different, but the medical standards, the integration of different systems of medicine and our focus on what is best for the patient must remain the same.”

While SOUKYA will continue as a highly personalised residential integrative health centre serving Indian and international guests, SUGHA will provide residential integrative care across broader price points, with insurance support wherever possible for patients across income groups.

Long before SOUKYA became internationally known, charitable clinics operated by his team had begun serving villages around Hoskote. That outreach, which initially covered only a handful of villages, now extends to nearly 150 villages and around 1.5 lakh people through free consultations and medicines. “These experiences demonstrated that integrative medicine could be both clinically relevant and socially accessible,” Dr. Mathai opined.