New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced a special Ayush mark for Ayush products among many new initiatives for Ayush sector, on the occasion of Global Ayush Investment & Innovation Summit 2022.
The Prime Minister on Wednesday inaugurated the three-day Global Ayush Investment & Innovation Summit 2022 at Gandhinagar in the presence of the Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Ayush Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and others.
In his inaugural address, Modi said: “We are already witnessing unprecedented growth in the production of Ayush medicines, supplements and cosmetics. In 2014, where the Ayush sector was less than $3 billion, today it has increased to more than $18 billion. An unprecedented efforts has been made in the past years to promote the export of Ayush products.”
Along with first being a special Ayush mark for Ayush products, Modi announced many other initiatives for Ayush sector. A new category named ‘Ayush Aahar’ was announced which will greatly facilitate the producers of herbal nutritional supplements.
Further, another major initiative for foreign nationals who want to come to India to take advantage of Ayush therapy was announced. India will soon introduce a special Ayush visa category.
Describing the current age of the era of unicorns, the Prime Minister informed that in the year 2022 itself, so far 14 start-ups from India have joined the Unicorn Club. “I am sure unicorns will emerge from our Ayush start-ups very soon”, he stated.
Prime Minister also announced launch of Ayush Export Promotion Council and four Ayush ICT initiatives which includes Ayush Information Hub, AyuSoft, Ayush Next and Ayush GIS.
The Prime Minister also released a comic book named ‘Professor Ayushman’, which describes how Ayush systems and products helped in fighting not only Covid-19 but other diseases also.
Addressing the session, Tedros said that the Ayush sector is growing significantly — by 17 per cent per year since 2014.
He said that Ayush industry is projected to reach $23 billion by the end of this year.
“We are exploring innovative study designs and the use of artificial intelligence to document the impact of traditional medicine practices, in cases when standard randomised trials are not possible or are difficult to undertake.
“Strengthening the evidence base of traditional medicine should facilitate its use by communities, to promote better health outcomes, economic benefits and overall impact,” he added.