THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF AYURVEDA, YOGA & NATUROPATHY, UNANI, SIDDHA AND HOMOEOPATHY(AYUSH)
(SHRI SHRIPAD YESSO NAIK)
(a) to (d): A statement is laid on the Table of the House
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA
STARRED QUESTION NO. 200 FOR 06TH MAY, 2016
(a) & (b): In line with its mandate for global promotion and propagation of the AYUSH systems of medicine, the Ministry of AYUSH has been organizing/ participating in International exhibitions/ conferences/ workshops/ seminars/ road shows/ trade fairs, etc. to have wider reach for international propagation of AYUSH. Incentives are also being provided (a) to AYUSH drug manufacturers, entrepreneurs, AYUSH institutions, etc. for participating in International exhibitions/ conferences/ workshops/ seminars/ road shows/ trade fairs, etc. for generating awareness amongst the participating public about the Indian Medicine and; (b) to AYUSH drug manufacturers for registration of AYUSH products with regulatory agencies of different countries to enhance export of the products. To meet the worldwide increasing demand of Yoga experts, the Ministry of AYUSH has launched a scheme for Voluntary Certification of Yoga Professionals on 22nd June, 2015 in collaboration with Quality Council of India (QCI). The Scheme aims at promoting authentic Yoga as a preventive and health promotive drugless therapy and involves certifying the competence level of the professionals to help their deployment within and outside the country.
As a result of concerted efforts Ministry of AYUSH has achieved great success by marking presence of AYUSH systems of medicine across the globe, as is evident from the following:
(i) Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for Country to Country cooperation in field of Traditional Medicine have been signed with Nepal, Bangladesh, Hungary, Trinidad & Tobago, Malaysia, China, Mauritius, Mongolia and Turkmenistan.
(ii) MoUs for undertaking collaborative research have been signed with Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, UK and National Centre for Natural Product Research (NCNPR) University of Mississippi, USA and College of Homeopaths of Ontario, Canada; and Letters of Intent (LoIs) with Mexico and University of Strasbourg, France.
(iii) The Ministry has also set up Academic Chairs in Hungary, Trinidad & Tobago (Ayurveda Chair) and South Africa (Unani Chair). Besides, MoUs have also been signed with Universities in Russia, Indonesia, Slovenia, Thailand and Armenia for setting up of AYUSH Academic Chairs.
(iv) AYUSH Information Cells for dissemination of authentic information about AYUSH Systems of Medicine have been set up at Malaysia, Trinidad & Tobago, Mexico, Cuba, Hungary, Russia, Indonesia (2 Cells), Mauritius, Slovenia, Sweden, China, Dubai, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Argentina and Israel.
(v) Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the signing of Agreement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) for long term collaboration under which, the WHO would help in improving international acceptability and promotion of AYUSH systems.
(vi) An Indo-US workshop on Traditional Systems with special focus on cancer was organized in New Delhi on 3-4 March, 2016. A US team comprising of experts from National Cancer Institute (NCI) took part in the two-day exhaustive deliberations.
(c) & (d) : Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules thereunder have regulatory provisions for Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani (ASU) medicines, under which it is mandatory for the manufacturers to comply with the quality standards of ingredients of minerals and metallic origin as prescribed in the pharmacopoeia and with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for manufacturing of herbo-mineral-metallic compounds of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani medicines as contained in part ‘D’ of Schedule ‘T’ of the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945.
Also, permissible limits of heavy metals in ASU medicines manufactured from plant materials are prescribed in the pharmacopoeia.
It is also pertinent to state that heavy metals are used in the manufacturing of ASU medicines after subjecting them to certain sophisticated pharmaceutical processes called the Shodhana, Marana, Bhavana, Amritikarana and trituration with juices or decoctions of medicinal plants to render them therapeutically safe and effective with judicious consumption under medical supervision. Labelling provisions for such ASU medicines in the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945 seek mention of the ‘Caution: to be taken under medical supervision’ on the container of medicine.
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