The Government was looking at international collaborations for propagating Ayush — Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy, a top official of the department said on Friday.
Ayush had put together modules of Ayurveda courses on websites and there have been lot of interest from foreign countries, Ayush Joint Secretary B. Anand told reporters here on the sidelines of Global Ayurveda summit here.
Middlesex University in U.K. has adopted the three semester Ayurveda course. Talks have been initiated with Mississippi Univeristy in U.S. “There are also plans to set up a chair for Ayurveda studies in Germany. Talks in this regard are going on,” he said.
Earlier, addressing the summit, Mr. Anand stressed the need for credible validation of Ayurvedic system and urged the private sector to step in a big way and join hands with the government in mainstream research.
“We need to have credible validation of the system and private sector should step in a big way to join hands with the government for mainstream research”, Mr. Anand said.
China has invested huge amounts in R&D and most of the money had come from expatriates, he said adding the Ayurveda industry should form a conglomerate and take R&D forward.
Mr. Anand said the Ayurveda drug manufacturers should form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for research relevant to today’s world and Ayush could chip in with a matching subsidy.
Instead of looking up at the government, private sector itself should set its house in order by ensuring quality assurance, he said.
For branding of Ayurvedic products, Ayush had tied up with Quality Control of India (QCI) and about 10 manufacturers have come forward to register 35 products, which would be branded under ‘Ayush Premium’ for exports and ‘Ayush standard’ mark for domestic sales.
Speaking on Commercial aspects of Ayurveda, Manoj Joshi, Health Secretary, Kerala, said with demand for Ayurveda products going up, there could be raw materials shortage in the years to come.
About 1000 hectares of forest area was cut every year and large trees need to be planted for recycling. Forest department was deciding on its own on which species to grow.
Mr. Joshi said for Quality Upgradation, a soft loan type of window can be thought of by Ayush and department of finance.
