NIIST-CSIR to Hold Conclave on Kerala’s Potential to Emerge as Ayurveda Hub

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
NIIST-CSIR, Thiruvananthapuram, will be holding a one-day conclave on the vast potential of Kerala to emerge as a global hub of Ayurveda by developing the sector in a scientific manner on March 14, as part of March 13-18 One Week One Lab (OWOL) programme launched to showcase the legacy, innovations and technological breakthrough achieved by the laboratories of CSIR.

The meet comes as part of a series programmes planned by the National Institute for Inter-disciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, a constituent laboratory of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt of India, within the framework of OWOL.

Scheduled as a thematic session titled ‘Ayurswasthaya, the conclave aims at creating awareness about the need for scientific validation of rich traditional knowledge in the area of ayurveda for future technological developments in healthcare sector.

Dr Manoj Nesari, Adviser-Ayurveda, Ministry of Ayush, will be the Chief Guest at the meet, to be presided over by Dr Radha Rangarajan, Director, CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow.

Keshavendra Kumar, Special Secretary, Ayush, Govt of Kerala; Dr ViswajananiSattigeri, Head, CSIR-TKDL, New Delhi, and Dr PM Varier, Managing Trustee and Chief Physician, Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal, will be the guests of honour.

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. Ayurveda has been transformed from a conventional homemade preparation unit to medium or high-tech manufacturing units with a wide market.

“Though we have around 8000 units in Ayurveda sector, only less than 1000 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 and hence there is a need for their standardization and scientific validation,” said Dr. C Anandharamakrishnan, Director, CSIR – NIIST, Pappanamcode.

There is also a need to improve the existing processing facilities of Ayurvedic industry, which is a major challenge faced by most MSMEs in the traditional medicine sector. This can be achieved by providing academic and research support to MSMEs along with incubation facilities, he said.

Under the Government of India’s ‘Healthy India’ initiative, NIIST-CSIR is working on scientific projects for strengthening Ayurveda MSMEs with academic and research inputs.

CSIR has proven capabilities in bioprospecting of medicinal plants and has initiated the process of setting up a Centre of Excellence in Ayurveda with the support from Ministry of Ayush and CSIR.

The mandate of the centre is to provide scientific support and validation to Ayurvedic industries and products, with a state-of-the-art facility for testing, validation, and incubation for MSME industries in Ayurveda.

This facility will enable MSMEs to have raw drugs and medicines made by them tested at NIIST-CSIR, Thiruvanthapuram, through standardized protocols.

Research and development activities will in turn also strengthen NIIST’s efforts in finding new drug candidates against multi-drug resistant bacterial infections and also newly emerging viral and other infectious diseases.

The meet, which will have two-panel discussion on ‘Scientific validation of Traditional knowledge for Healthy India’ and ‘Strengthening Ayurvedic MSME Industries with Academic and Research Inputs’, is expected to be a crucial step towards building a self-reliant India in the health sector by utilizing the rich traditional knowledge of our country.

Panellists in the first session will 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).

The speakers at the second session will be rof. 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) Dr. Sheela Karalam B. (Head, R & D, Vaidyaratnam Ayurveda Research Institute). Dr. K. V. Radhakrishnan will be the moderator for both the sessions.

The thematic session has invitees and participants from the agricultural sector who are involved in medicinal plant cultivation, Ayurveda drug manufacturing sector, Ayurveda hospital sector and clinicians, Ayurveda herbal drug merchant sector, entrepreneurs in AYUSH sector, Ayurveda medicine marketing and distribution sector.

There will also be participants from universities, colleges, and national institutes; research scholars & dynamic youngsters with a keen interest in developing Ayurveda and the rich traditional knowledge of the country for a healthy India.