Gandhinagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that to promote the traditional medicine industry, India will soon launch the `AYUSH mark' which will give authenticity to quality AYUSH products made in the country. Speaking of "Heal in India", he also announced that a special visa category will be created soon for those who want to travel to India to avail AYUSH therapies.
Speaking after inaugurating the three-day Global AYUSH Investment and Innovation Summit at Mahatma Mandir in the presence of Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth and Director General of the World Health Organization Dr Tredos Ghebreyesus, Modi said, "'AYUSH' denotes Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy. India has a central ministry dedicated to these alternative medicine systems. India will soon introduce the AYUSH mark, which will give authenticity to quality AYUSH products of the country. The mark will be given to products vetted using the latest technology. This will give confidence to people of the world that they are purchasing quality AYUSH products"
The special "AYUSH visa" will help those who wish to seek traditional treatments in India said the PM who added, "Traditional medicine helped increase tourism in Kerala. This power is in the whole of India, in every corner of India. 'Heal in India' can become a big brand in this decade. Wellness centres based on Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, etc., can be very popular."
Speaking of the possibilities of investment and innovation in the field of AYUSH, he said India has witnessed unprecedented growth in the production of AYUSH medicines, supplements and cosmetics. "Before 2014, the AYUSH sector was less than USD 3 billion. Today it has crossed USD 18 billion," he added. The Union Ministry of AYUSH has also taken steps to encourage start-up culture in the field of traditional medicine, and an incubation centre developed by the All India Institute of Ayurveda was inaugurated recently, he noted.
"In India, this is an era of unicorns. In 2022, so far 14 start-ups from India have joined the unicorn club. I am sure unicorns will emerge from our AYUSH start-ups very so. The main reason for the prosperity of Ayurveda has been its open-source model. Ayurveda has developed through open-source tradition. Even today, we should learn from our ancestors to work with intellectual openness," Modi said.
The government is also working on the modernization and expansion of AYUSH e-market portal to connect farmers with companies that make AYUSH products, he said, noting that medicinal plants can be a good source for increasing farmers' income. "It has a large scope for employment generation. But we have seen that the markets for such plants and products are limited and specialized. It is very important that farmers involved in the production of medicinal plants get the facility to easily connect with the market," he said. The new category 'AYUSH Aahar' introduced by the FSSAI last week in its regulations will help the producers of herbal nutritional supplements, Modi stated.
Additionally, he also said that AYUSH Export Promotion Council, set up recently, will encourage exports and help find foreign markets. The government is going to create a network of AYUSH Parks to encourage research and provide a new direction to AYUSH manufacturing, the PM said. On COVID-19 pandemic and how it increased the export of turmeric which is considered an immunity-booster, "Who could have imagined that so soon we would be able to develop a made-in-India corona vaccine? Innovation and investment increase the capacities of any sector. Time has come to increase investment in the AYUSH sector as well, and this summit is a wonderful launch of the same," Modi said.
Director-General of WHO, Dr Tredos Ghebreyesus said "I believe in Ayurveda and Panchkarma treatment. The traditional medicine system is useful to promote the hospital management system. AYUSH sector is constantly evolving." Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnath said in his address that "WHO data shows that 80 per cent of people use traditional medicine. WHO Global Center for Traditional Medicine will prove India's worth. AYUSH is widely used in Mauritius with the legal framework".
READ: 'Wellness ultimate goal': PM Modi inaugurates WHO-Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Gujarat
