CSIR - NIIST to hold a conclave to celebrate Ayurveda
“Ayurswasthya”, the thematic session on Ayurveda on March 14 as part of “One- Week-One-Lab” initiative of Govt. of India
Trivandrum / February 26, 2023
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb. 26: CSIR - National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, would be holding a one-day conclave on “Ayurswasthya” on March 14, as part of the “One-Week-One-Lab” (OWOL) programme to celebrate Ayurveda, the heritage medicinal system of India.
The conclave comes as part of a series of programmes planned within the framework of OWOL during March 13-18 by NIIST, Thiruvananthapuram, a constituent laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.
The thematic session titled “Ayurswasthaya” aims to create awareness of the traditional knowledge in the area of Ayurveda for scientific validation to strengthen the Ayurvedic MSME Industries with academic or research inputs. Dr. Manoj Nesari, Adviser Ayurveda, Ministry of Ayush, will be the Chief Guest at the meeting, to be presided over by Dr. Radha Rangarajan, Director, CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow. Shri. Keshavendra Kumar IAS, Special Secretary, Ayush, Govt. of Kerala; Dr (Mrs) Viswajanani Sattigeri, Head, CSIR-TKDL, New Delhi, and Dr. P. M. Varier, Managing Trustee and Chief Physician, Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal, would be the guests of honor.
Kerala with its abundance of flora is a well-known hub of Ayurveda and is considered the only state in India, where it is being practiced in its purest form for thousands of years. At present, Ayurveda has transformed from a conventional homemade preparation unit to medium or high-tech manufacturing units with a wide market that could burgeon to a value of 1536.9 billion INR by 2027.
Though we have around 8000 Indian ISM industries in the sector of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, and Homoeopathy, nevertheless not many of these industries are having in-house quality control & standardization facilities. “Considering a substantial increase in the demand for Ayurvedic products, quality assurance must be envisaged with great importance, thus creating an utmost need for their standardization and scientific validation,” said Dr. C. Anandharamakrishnan, Director, CSIR-NIIST, Thiruvananthapuram. There is also a demand to improve the existing processing facilities of the Ayurvedic industry, a major challenge faced by most MSMEs in the traditional medicine sector, which can be attained by extending academic and research support to MSMEs along with incubation facilities, the Director, CSIR-NIIST said.
Under the Government of India’s ‘Healthy India’ initiative, CSIR-NIIST is working on scientific projects for strengthening Ayurveda MSMEs with academic and research inputs. Also, NIIST has proven capabilities in the bio-prospecting of medicinal plants and has initiated the process of setting up a “Centre of Excellence in Ayurveda” with support from the Ministry of Ayush and CSIR. The mandate of the center would be to provide scientific support and validation to Ayurvedic industries and products, with a state-of-the-art facility for testing, validation, and incubation. This facility is envisaged to enable MSMEs to test their raw drugs and medicines at NIIST through standardized protocols.
These research and development activities and initiatives of NIIST in the area of Ayurveda are envisaged to pave the way for the discovery of new drug candidates against multi-drug resistant bacterial infections and also newly emerging viral or other infectious diseases.
“Ayurswasthya” would have two-panel discussions on 'Scientific validation of Traditional knowledge for Healthy India’ and ‘Strengthening Ayurvedic MSME Industries with Academic and Research Inputs’, moderated by Dr. K. V. Radhakrishnan, Head, Chemical Sciences and Technology Division, CSIR-NIIST.
The panellists for the first session would be Dr. S Rajasekharan (Former Director Grade Scientist, Ethnomedicine and Ethnopharmacology, JNTBGRI, Palode, Thiruvananthapuram), Prof. N. Punniamurthy (EVM Herbal Research Center, TANUVAS), Dr. P. Ram Manohar (Director, Centre for Advanced Research In Ayurveda, Amritapuri), Dr. Vaidya M. Prasad (Sunethri Centre for Autism Research and Education, Thrissur). Prof. Rajmohan V. (Government Ayurveda College, Thiruvananthapuram), Dr. Sanil Kumar (Kerala Ayurvedic Co-operative Society, Kozhikode), Dr. P. R. Ramesh (Chief, Clinical Research, Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal) and Dr. Sheela Karalam B. (Head, R & D, Vaidyaratnam Ayurveda Research Institute) would be the speakers of the second session.
These thematic sessions would see the invitees and participants from the agricultural sector of medicinal plant cultivation, Ayurveda drug manufacturing sector, Ayurveda hospital sector, clinicians, Ayurveda herbal drug merchant sector, entrepreneurs in AYUSH sector, Ayurveda medicine marketing and distribution sector, etc. There would also be participants from universities, colleges, and national institutes; research scholars and dynamic youngsters with a keen interest in developing Ayurveda for a healthy India.
