BENGALURU: Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers H N Ananth Kumar requested the participants at the BRICS Wellness Workshop to moot a proposal to the World Health Organisation to set up a World Organisation of Traditional Medicine, here on Saturday.
He urged Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik along with other dignitaries to consider taking the initiative to form a forum, as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries represent 40 per cent of the world’s population and India leads in traditional medicine alongside China.
“We should have such an organisation under the World Health Organisation. We are a miniscule part of WHO, but need to be a decisive part,” said Anant Kumar, who spoke about two-year-old AYUSH ministry being more internationally known than the ministry of civil aviation. The celebration of the World Yoga Day was one such indication, he said.
Ministry of AYUSH was formed on November 9, 2014. There are 14 NABH accredited AYUSH hospitals and 7,44,000 AYUSH practitioners in the country that includes Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy.
Principal Secretary Shalini Rajneesh requested Ananth Kumar, who is also the Minister for Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, to integrate AYUSH into mainstream healthcare.
Ministry of AYUSH and MEA, with support of Government of Karnataka, are organising a two-day BRICS wellness workshop starting from Saturday in Bengaluru.
The event is being organised as a run-up to the BRICS Summit scheduled in Goa on October 15 and 16.
AYUSH to set up a Yoga institute in Mandya
Ministry of AYUSH will be setting up a National Institute for Yoga and Naturopathy in Nagamangala of Mandya district.
Anil Kumar Ganeriwala, Joint Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH, on the sidelines of an event here on Saturday, said, “The construction started in 2010-12. The first phase cost us `56 crore. The second phase will cost us `10 -`20 crore. We will apply to Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences for affiliation. There will be 10 seats for MD in Yoga and 10 in Naturopathy. Earlier, the institute was meant only for research, then we decided to offer post graduation,”he said.