PM inaugurates ayurveda research & teaching institute

Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated two future-ready Ayurveda institutions to the nation on the occasion of the 5th Ayurveda Day.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday dedicated to the nation an Ayurveda teaching and research institute here in Gujarat that will offer a range of courses and forge interdisciplinary collaborations to give a contemporary thrust to the ancient medicine system.

Both the institutes are premier institutions of Ayurveda in the country. The former has been conferred the status of an Institution of National Importance (INI) by an Act of Parliament and the latter that of an Institution Deemed to be University (De novo Category) by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the AYUSH ministry said.

The newly formed Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (ITRA), which the PM inaugurated through video conferencing, has been accorded the status of an "institution of national importance" (INI).

ITRA, situated in the Gujarat Ayurveda University campus in Jamnagar city, was created through an Act of Parliament recently.

It was formed by merging a cluster of four Ayurveda institutes at the university campus.

These four institutes were - the Institute for Post Graduate Teaching and Research in Ayurveda, Shree Gulab Kunverba Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya, Institute of Ayurvedic Pharmaceutical Sciences and Maharshi Patanjali Institute for Yoga Naturopathy Education and Research.

In September, Parliament had passed a bill for the creation of ITRA and conferred it the status of an "institution of national importance".

ITRA is the first institute to enjoy this status in the AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) sector, said a release by the PIB.

The Ministry of AYUSH, since 2016, has been observing the "Ayurveda Day" every year on the occasion of Dhanwantari Jayanti (Dhanteras). This year, it falls on Friday.

Considering the prevailing situation of COVID-19, the 5th Ayurveda Day, 2020 is being observed largely on virtual platforms at national and international levels.

The ITRA, Jamnagar, recently created through an Act of Parliament, is poised to emerge as a world-class healthcare institution. It has 12 departments, three clinical laboratories and three research laboratories, the ministry said.

It is also a leader in research work in traditional medicine, conducting 33 research projects currently. The ITRA has been formed by conglomerating the cluster of four Ayurveda institutes on the Gujarat Ayurveda University campus, Jamnagar. It is the first institute in the Ayush sector to be accorded the INI status.

(PTI)