National Medicinal Plants Board

The B2B Conference & Expo along with the National Arogya Summit, held in Guwahati recently under the aegis of the Ministry of Ayush under India’s presidency of SCO, has successfully brought together 25 SCO countries to promote Traditional Medicine so as that it can contribute to the economic development, environment protection and achieve the goal of Health Security among the SCO nations. The event witnessed the active participation of H.E. Dr. Thet Khaing Win Minister of Health, Myanmar, H.E. Safiyya Mohamed Saeed Deputy Minister of Health, Maldives and Dr. Munjpara Mahendrabhai MoS for Ayush and Participation of China, Russia, and Pakistan in technical sessions through virtual mode was also noteworthy.  The Conference and Expo cum Summit was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Ayush and Ports, Shipping &Waterways Shri Sarbananda Sonowal. India attained the SCO full member status in 2017 and after assuming the Presidency of SCO Council of Heads of State for the year 2023 on 17th September 2022 at Samarkand in Uzbekistan, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had remarked that India would take the initiative for a new SCO Expert Working Group on Traditional Medicine. Accordingly, the Ministry of Ayush has taken various initiatives on Traditional Medicine during India’s SCO Presidency viz., organized a virtual conference of experts and practitioners of Traditional Medicine, conducted the First Expert Working Group (EWG) on Traditional Medicine wherein Draft Regulations of the EWG on Traditional Medicine were approved at an expert level and will be further subjected to other respective country administrative procedures and finally to be adopted at the Head of the States Summit. It is in this light that the Guwahati SCO B2B Conference and Expo acquire importance and could successfully take the momentum further. On the sidelines of the SCO B2B conference, the Ministry of Ayush also had a bilateral meeting with Myanmar to discuss cooperation on Ayurveda and Traditional Medicine. The MoU for the same was signed between the Ministry of Ayush, India, and the Ministry of Health, Myanmar on 29th August 2016, which is automatically extended and valid up till 28th August 2026. The Indian side was led by Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, Minister for Ayush and Ports, Shipping & waterways. Myanmar's side was led by H.E. Dr. Thet Khaing Win,  Minister, Ministry of Health, Myanmar. This Conference was attended by a total of 214 participants, out of which 83 were international delegates from 16 SCO Countries and 131 were Indian delegates. A total of 30 presentations were made during the said event of which 19 were from SCO Countries. 11 presentations were delivered by the Indian side, including presentations from the Ministry of Ayush and the industry. A total of 11 sessions were held during the said conference. Active participation by all representatives across various discussions/presentations, trade activities and concurrently running National Arogya Summit/Expo was a remarkable achievement. While 56 exhibitors, including industries, educational institutes, and Ayush services providers exhibited their products, institutions & infrastructure, and were involved in the B2B expo in Guwahati, the encouraging response came from 60 buyers from 11 countries in the form of keen interest. During the conference and the Expo, more than 125 one-to-one meetings were held between buyers & sellers. The trade interest was received from 13 SCO countries in the fields of Ayurveda Education, Traditional Medicine Products, and developing Infrastructure for providing Ayurveda and Yoga for Medical Value Travel. These B2B meeting participants were from Tajikistan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and India. The B2B conference was organized in line with the theme “SECURE” SCO, where ‘S’ stands for Security for Citizens, ‘E’ for Economic Development, ‘C’ for Connectivity, ‘U’ for Unity, ‘R’ for Respect for Sovereignty and Territorial Unity and ‘E’ for Environment Protection. These themes were covered during the SCO events in India in the following manner:- The SCO nations together deliberated on various issues about Traditional Medicine, easing up trade for traditional medicine within the SCO nations and promoting Traditional medicine. These issues were discussed upon to achieve the goal of Health Security among the SCO nations, which relates to the Security (Health) theme of SCO. Keeping the theme of Economic Development into consideration, 10 LOIs were received during the event along with a direct trade interest of over INR 590 Crore. Likewise, the opportunities will also be available for other SCO countries. 16 SCO nations brought together under one umbrella for deliberating on the key agenda of the development of traditional medicine and its active promotion highlights the Connectivity theme of SCO. Consensus was developed among the Experts from SCO Member States on the Regulations of the EWG on TM under SCO which relates to the Unity theme of SCO. This event held by the Ministry of Ayush, under the vision of our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, was not only a crown jewel in the SCO deliberations and cooperation efforts under the presidency of India but also highlights the potential for growth and synergies between SCO Nations in the global Traditional Medicine sector. Also Read in Hindi►पारंपरिक चिकित्सा को प्रोत्‍साहित करने के लिए 25 देश एक साथ आए

Union Minister of Ayush Sarbananda Sonowal today announced that three National Ayush Institutes - All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), Goa, National Institute of Unani Medicine (NIUM), Ghaziabad and National Institute of Homoeopathy (NIH), Delhi will be dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 11th December 2022. These satellite institutes will further strengthen the research, international collaborations and facilitate affordable Ayush services for larger community. While addressing the media Sarbananda Sonowal also gave details of 9th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC), which will showcase the scientificity, efficacy, strength of Ayush System of Medicines at Global level in Panjim, Goa. Minister of State of Ayush Dr. Munjapara Mahendrabhai along with Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha and other officials of Ministry of Ayush were present on this occasion. Prime Minister will also attend the valedictory function of WAC on 11 December in Goa. On this occasion, Sarbananda Sonowal said, Establishment of these institutes is in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of expansion of infrastructure and human resources, promotion of research in the traditional medical systems. Through these institute Government of India will be further strengthen its capabilities to provide affordable healthcare to every citizen and every region of the country. Establishment of these three National Ayush institutes in Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Unani will create 400 additional seats for 400 students, who want to pursue UG, PG and Doctoral courses and also add 550 additional beds in these three streams. All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), Goa will work to provide the highest quality facilities for UG, PG and post-doctoral streams in the aspects of education, research and patient care services through Ayurveda system of medicine. It will be developed into a wellness hub of Ayurveda promoting Medical Value Travel (MVT) and will function as a model centre for international and national collaboration for academic & research purposes. The National Institute of Homoeopathy (NIH), Delhi is first of its kind to be established in Northern India for developing the Homoeopathic system of medicine and to provide health care facilities. It will work in mainstreaming and integrate Ayush healthcare services with modern medicines and encourage R&D and innovation and to develop National Institutes of repute. National institute of Unani Medicine (NIUM), Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh will be a satellite Centre of the existing National Institute of Unani Medicine, Bangalore.  It will first such institute in Northern India and cater to the patients around Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and other states of India as well as foreign nationals under MVT. Ministry of Ayush is collaborating to organize 9th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) at Panjim, Goa and will showcase the scientificity, efficacy, and strength of Ayush System of Medicines at Global level. To this end various activities are being planned and Ayush fraternity is also participating in different discussions, presentations etc.

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. Read More► PM Launches Ayush Visa for Medical Tourists

London: A psychedelic compound found in psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms, can help to "open up" depressed people's brains, enabling brain regions to talk more freely to one another, finds a study. Psilocybin is one of a number of psychedelics being explored as a potential therapy for psychiatric disorders. Several studies have trialled a synthesised form of the drug to treat patients with depression and anxiety, with promising results. A team at Imperial College London's Centre for Psychedelic Research believes to have untangled how psilocybin exerts its therapeutic effects on the brain. The new results, taken from two combined studies including about 60 adults, reveal that people who responded to psilocybin-assisted therapy showed increased brain connectivity not just during their treatment, but up to three weeks afterwards. This "opening up" effect was associated with self-reported improvements in their depression. However, similar changes in brain connectivity were not seen in those treated with a conventional antidepressant (called escitalopram), suggesting the psychedelic works differently in treating depression. According to the team, the findings, published in the journal Nature Medicine, are a promising advance for psilocybin therapy, with the effects replicated across two studies. They explain that patterns of brain activity in depression can become rigid and restricted, and that psilocybin could potentially help the brain to break out of this rut in a way that traditional therapies cannot. "The effect seen with psilocybin is consistent across two studies, related to people getting better, and was not seen with a conventional antidepressant," said Professor Robin Carhart-Harris, from University of California, San Francisco. "In previous studies we had seen a similar effect in the brain when people were scanned whilst on a psychedelic, but here we're seeing it weeks after treatment for depression, which suggests a acarry over' of the acute drug action," Carhart-Harris, who was former Head of the Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research. The researchers added that while follow-up data is still being analysed for participants, initial changes in brain activity one day following treatment were a good predictor of whether a person would still show improvement at six months. However, they cautioned that patients with depression should not attempt to self-medicate with psilocybin, as taking magic mushrooms or psilocybin in the absence of safeguards may not have a positive outcome. (Agency) Read More► Drinking Coffee Could Benefit Heart, Help You Live Longer: Study