Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan urged the Planning Commission to come up with a national programme on Ayurveda so that people would know about the potential of the traditional system of medicine.
Inaugurating the year-long Saptati celebrations of the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy (AVP) (Coimbatore) Limited, the Governor said that the cooperation of the Government was essential in developing Ayurveda.
“Raw materials required for the treatment are not easily available and hence genuine practitioners such as AVP have to develop large farms for this purpose. There also has to be a check on fake Ayurveda practitioners who are cheating foreigners,” he added.
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K. Kasthurirangan, Member of Planning Commission, said the Government was extending optimum support to the development of Ayurveda. Research was on with regard to the usage of ‘Bhasma’ (sacred ash), which was now identified as nano-particles.
To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of AVP, playback singer Asha Bhonsle was conferred the title of ‘Rasikapriya’ by the Governor.
In her acceptance speech, the singer extolled the advantages of the Ayurveda system that her family had been following for three generations. She lamented that it was pity that people had failed to recognise the worth of Ayurveda as a medicine.
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P.R. Krishnakumar, Managing Director, K.G. Raveendran, Medical Director, and Sivadas Varier, Director, of AVP, spoke.