The AYUSH sector has surged from $ 3 billion to $24 billion in 8 years, marking its transition to a sunrise sector - Padmashri Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH
The 7th CII AYUSH Conclave, organized by Confederation of Indian Industry was held on 22nd March 2024 with the theme “Emerging trends in AYUSH: Unleashing the market potential”. The conclave has brought together opinion and thought leaders from AYUSH Industry, academicians, practitioners, Central and State Government stakeholders, innovators/start-ups, medical & healthcare professionals, Ayush Associations, Hospitals and Healthcare centres in the AYUSH domain on a common platform to discuss and deliberate on various challenges and path forward for achieving the vision of the sector.
The conclave highlighted measures for positioning AYUSH products in global marketplace, demand generation and future scope. It also witnessed discussions on role of AYUSH in achieving universal health coverage, the entrepreneurship ecosystem of the sector and modern-day perspective on AYUSH.
Padmashri Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH draw attention of the stakeholders towards how AYUSH sector has achieved the value of 24 billion in 10 years’ time. He emphasized that post Covid global acceptance and domestic demand for AYUSH products and services has increased. He stated that Ministry is working with different organizations and Ministries to strengthen the research and evidence building in the sector. He apprised the stakeholders that Ministry of AYUSH and ICMR has set up Advanced Centre for Integrative Health Research across selected AIIMS in the country, Ministry is also collaborating with AIIMS to set up a Department of Integrative Medicine. He also highlighted that the Ayush Grid platform is working towards digitization of service delivery across the six functional areas- Health Services, Education, Research, Drug Administration, Medicinal Plants, and capacity building and media outreach.
He mentioned the Ministry’s collaboration with Atal Innovation Mission to foster startups in the sector and collaboration with ILBS towards therapeutics. He praised CII for its efforts towards the AYUSH sector especially in bringing investments and showcasing India on a global platform. Next, he highlighted that for achieving quality benchmarks across products and services, more work is to be done, industry and government should join hands towards achieving this objective.
Dr Rabinarayan Acharya, Director General, Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) highlighted the government efforts towards strengthening the sector, collaborative research efforts to generate evidence. He mentioned that the Ministry will help develop three key botanicals while ensuring quality, safety, and efficacy by 2030. He apprised the audience of an undergraduate scholarship scheme (SPARK) that Ministry and CCRAS has started to promote research aptitude and innovation among students through short term research projects and CCRAS Post Doctoral Fellowship to identify motivated young researchers of Ayurveda and related science disciplines to provide them support for doing research in frontier areas of Ayurveda and to enhance their academic and research capabilities.
Mr Shashwat Goenka, Chairman, CII National Taskforce on AYUSH, and Director, PCBL Limited highlighted the concept of holistic well being given by AYUSH. He highlighted that AYUSH industry is currently undergoing a significant transition, due to growing global and domestic demand and the approach adopted by the government addresses all crucial aspects like public health, research, technology, education, globalization, standardization, and quality control. He emphasized that the growth in Ayush manufacturing, exports, and the rise of MSMEs and startups, will lead to economic development.
Mr Rajiv Vasudevan, Co-Chairman, CII National Taskforce on AYUSH and MD & CEO, Apollo Ayur VAID Hospitals apprised the audience that the terminology defining diseases in Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha medicine has been indexed as a code and included in the WHO Disease Classification Series, Global Centre of Traditional Medicine (GCTM) has been launched in India , IRDAI mandate to cover AYUSH treatments under insurance cover are big steps towards mainstreaming AYUSH. He stated the crucial need of skill development and training of professionals by the industry and strengthening the existing institutions within the country. He stated that India has huge scope for Medical Value Travel and therapeutic wellness.
22 March 2024
New Delhi