Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Friday said the government was all for encouraging alternative systems of medicine including Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH).
The rest of the world was today looking to India for research and development, treatment methodology and intervention using these alternative systems of medicine and the number of students coming here to study these systems was on the rise, Mr. Azad told a gathering after inaugurating Arogya-2012, an exhibition showcasing the strength and potential of traditional medicine systems, at the Exhibition Grounds in Hyderabad.
MoUs signed
He said MoUs were signed for bilateral cooperation in traditional medicine and establishing Ayurveda chairs and AYUSH Information Centres in countries like South Africa, Malaysia and Trinidad and Tobago, to name a few.
Budgetary allocation
Mr. Reddy said traditional medicine was a system that had cures for most symptoms and diseases and more importantly, there were no side effects. “We are encouraging it to the hilt,” he said, adding that the State government had made a budgetary allocation of Rs. 222 crore this year. He also reiterated the line that prevention was always better than cure.
Minister of Medical Education and AYUSH Kondru Murali said the State government was giving a major boost to AYUSH facilities across the State and a major chunk of the budgetary allocation was towards building AYUSH Bhavans with medicare facilities. Minister of Health & Family Welfare D.L. Ravindra Reddy also spoke.
The three-day exhibition here has stalls by stakeholders - practitioners and companies involved in manufacture of medicines and R & D.
