AYUSH institute directors’ meet: MoU signed between AIIA & IIT Delhi

New Delhi: The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH, Mr Shripad Yesso Naik inaugurated ‘Raising towards Excellence – A two day Conference of Heads of AYUSH National Institute’ organized by All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) at New Delhi on 17th July.

The conference is being organized with a vision to develop National AYUSH institutes as light house institutions, streamlining quality in research, hospital care facilities, education, harmonization and rationalization of infrastructure and activities, and forming uniform service guidelines.

As per organizers, the purpose of this conference is to upgrade the status of AYUSH institutes at par with IITs and IIMs. Therefore, as a step in that direction, the event also witnessed the signing of a MoU between All India Institute of Ayurveda and Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Naik said that the Ministry of AYUSH envisioned developing the national AYUSH institutes as light house institutions. He further said that in view of the worldwide changing healthcare system, it has become abundantly clear that there is a need for comprehensive review of traditional systems of medicine in terms of policy, legislation, regulation, research, development, financing, training and professional development, quality control and safety regulations of these systems of medicine.

The AYUSH Minister said that the Ayurveda is more oriented towards the management of lifestyle disorders, which are in prominence due to stress-related phenomena and some other reasons among certain age groups in the society.
Secretary AYUSH, Mr Rajesh Kotecha emphasized upon developing benchmarks for AYUSH practices and a need of elevating status of AYUSH institutes of National importance to deliver in the areas of education and research.

Dr V K Paul, Member, NITI Aayog spoke about five fundamental factors i.e. Education, Services, Research, Public Health and Promotion of AYUSH practices in streamlining systems. He stressed upon initiating outreach activities and having a standard, systematic plan in promoting AYUSH practices which is an essential, critical dimension of any system. He expressed that the AYUSH principles should enter into National Health Policies.

Dr V R Rao, Director, IIT-Delhi expressed his happiness as the MoU is conceptualized in a short span of a week. He urged upon bringing together the faculty and students of both institutes together to develop collaborative proposals that help in validating the traditional practices. He stressed upon the need of understanding, analyzing and validating the ancient wisdom by using available scientific tools.

The Protocols on Development of Standard Operating procedures on Pre-conceptional and Pre-natal care through Ayurveda and Standard Operating procedures Uttaravasti have been released during the session.

The Vice Chancellors of Gujarat Ayurved University, Uttarakhand Ayurved University, Shri Krishna AYUSH University and Directors of Institute for Post Graduate Teaching and Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar; National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur; National Institute of Unani Medicine, Bangalore; National Institute of Siddha, Chennai; National Institute of Homoeopathy, Kolkata; North Eastern Institute on Ayurveda and Homoeopathy, Shillong; National Institute of Naturopathy, Pune; Rashtriya Ayurveda Vidyapeeth, New Delhi; Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, New Delhi; All India Institute of Ayurveda, New Delhi were present in the event.

Besides Directors; administrative heads (including Medical Superintendent, official dealing with academics, finance and administration) from all these national institutes are participating in the conference.