AYUSH – Year End Review

• The Ministry of AYUSH, only two years old Ministry,  organised a series of programmes in the direction of providing affordable, reliable, easily accessible medical facilities to the masses and to strengthen and popularise the alternative systems of medicine.
• The patient-centric approach of the AYUSH systems of medicine, namely Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha & Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy hold significant potential for finding solutions to India’s public health challenges.

National Ayush Mission:

The Government of India has approved and notified National AYUSH Mission (NAM) which envisages better access to AYUSH Services; strengthening of AYUSH educational institutions, facilitate the enforcement of quality control of drugs and sustainable availability of raw-materials in the States/UTs.

International Cooperation:

• The Ministry of AYUSH took the following activities to globalized the popularity of AYUSH Systems of medicine
• A two-day India-US Workshop on Traditional Medicine was organized at New Delhi in association US Embassy to pave way for the future collaborations with US in the field of Traditional systems of Medicine.
• It supported the organization of ‘International Convention on World Homoeopathy Day’, on 9-10 April, 2016 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi organized jointly by the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH) and Liga Medicorum Homoeopathica Internationalis (LMHI). LMHI is an International registered professional organization, committed to development, promotion and research in Homoeopathy in various parts of world.
• An MoU for setting up of a Homoeopathy Chair at Yerevan State Medical University (YSMU), Armenia and an MoU on cooperation in the field of Research & Education in Homoeopathic Medicine with College of Homoeopathy (COH), Ontario were signed.
• The Ministry of AYUSH signed a Project Collaboration Agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop benchmarks for training in Yoga and practice in Ayurveda, Unani and Panchkarma.
• The Ministry of AYUSH has signed an MoU on cooperation in field of Traditional Medicine with the Ministry of Health & Sports of the Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
• Five AYUSH Information Cells have been set up by the Ministry to disseminate authentic information about AYUSH Systems of Medicine in Israel, Tajikistan, Peru, Russia and Tanzania.
• An MoU for cooperation in the field of Traditional medicine was signed between United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Convention, USA and Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian medicine (PCIM).
• It organized a two-day BRICS Wellness Workshop at Bengaluru during. Traditional Medicine / Wellness experts from the BRICS countries participated in it.
• CCRH has signed an MoU with University of Maimonides, Argentina for cooperation in the field of Homoeopathy.
• Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) has signed two MoUs one each with the University of Latvia and Argentina for setting up of Academic Chairs in Ayurveda. Similair MoUs  have been signed with ISRAEL and Canada for Cooperation in the field of Ayurvedic Medicine.
• Ministry of AYUSH organized the 9th Annual meeting of the International Regulatory Cooperation for Herbal Medicines (IRCH). The meeting was attended by 17 Member Countries with 33 delegates including 3 WHO officials. The event provided an excellent platform to showcase the strengths of AYUSH systems of medicine.
• As a result of concerted efforts made by the Ministry of AYUSH in collaboration with Ministry of Culture and Ministry of External Affairs, Yoga has been inscribed in the UNESCO's representative list as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Commercialization of AYUSH Medicine:

• The National Research Development Corporation has licensed Ayurvedic formulation ‘AYUSH-82’ for management of Diabetes and Ayurvedic Drug ‘Ayush-64’ for treatment of Malaria.
• Both the medicines are developed by CCRAS, an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of AYUSH.
• NRDC has licensed five companies during the year 2016 for manufacture of AYUSH-82.
• National Research Development Corporation has so far licensed 13 Ayurvedic technologies developed by CCRAS to more than 33 companies in India.

National Institutions:

• North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda & Homoeopathy- Shillong has been inaugurated. It is a state of the art institute consisting of Ayurveda College and Homoeopathy College along with attached hospital is of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy of 100 beds and 50 beds respectively. The objective of the institute is to provide better medicinal/clinical facilities to the people of North East Region and Sikkim.
• The following two new Institutes are to be operational during the current year(2016-17)
  1. The All India Institute of Ayurveda established at New Delhi has been conceived as an Apex Institute of Ayurveda with 200 bedded referral hospital for imparting education in the field of Ayurveda at M.D. and Ph.D level.
  2. North Eastern Institute of Folk Medicine (NEIFM), Pasighat-Arunachal Pradesh is the Centre of Excellence and Apex Research Centre for all aspect of Folk Medicine knowledge.
• The Ministry of AYUSH has also planned to establish an All India Institute of Homoeopathy at Narela, Delhi, All India Institute of Unani Medicine at Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) and an All India Institute of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy each at Goa and Panchkula(Haryana).

Category: Mains | GS – II | Health

Source: PIB