AYUSH Committee, PHDCCI organizes webinar on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in AYUSH Sector

New Delhi: The AYUSH Committee, PHDCCI recently organized a Webinar on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in AYUSH Sector with respect to the role of the Industry and Government of India.

The webinar was joined by Dr. Manoj Nesari, Advisor(Ay), Ministry of AYUSH, Govt. of India as the Chief Guest gave a keynote address and joined by Padma BhushanVd. DevenderaTriguna, President of AMAM, All India Ayurvedic Congress and Ayurveda Mahasammelan, Mr. Pradeep Multani, Sr. Vice President, PHD Chamber, Mr. Arvind Varchaswi, Chair, AYUSH Committee, PHD Chamber & Managing Director, Sri Sri Tattva and Mr. Jitender Sodhi, Co- Chair, AYUSH Committee, PHD Chamber & Managing Director, AYUSH Herbs Pvt Ltd.

The eminent panellists of the session were Dr.Vijendra Prakash, General Manager, Himalaya Drug Company, Dr. Rajiv Rai, Head Research, Dabur India Limited and Dr.Santosh Joshi, Sr. General Manager (R&D), Hamdard Laboratories India.

The session was moderated by Mr. Vivek Seigell, Assistant Secretary-General, PHD Chamber.

"Improvisation of the Pharmacopeia and capacity building with CSIR & IITs are the major focus areas for promoting Innovations in AYUSH Sector," said by Dr. Manoj Nesari, Advisor (Ay), Ministry of AYUSH, Govt. of India.

Dr. Manoj Nesarisaid the Ministry is dedicatedly working in upgrading the pharmacopeia and improving its quality and acceptability worldwide with other countries, which will help inincreasing the exports from the country. He further mentioned about various initiatives taken by the Ministry in improving the technology and adopting a diagnostic techniques by integrating modern technology for better finished products. He also talked about a recent program of Integrative Biology program which will certainly help the students in getting the insight about the system. 

Dr.Nesari said there is a need for training and capacity building for which the ministry is already working with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for developing integrated programs for training and education at different levels of doctors and post-doctoral programs. This will help to create awareness among the scientists, so that they can further develop themselves in these areas. He further mentioned that AYUSH has the potential to contribute to the growth of the economy and via ayurvedic biology program launched by the Government of India, will help to integrate innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship in the AYUSH sector. He also talked about recent MoU between the Ministry of AYUSH and Ministry of Women and Child Development for controlling Malnutrition as a part of POSHAN Abhiyaan. This initiative will help in controlling malnutrition in the country.

Padma BhushanVd. DevenderaTrigunathanked and congratulatedHon'ble Prime Minister of India for allocating a Union Minister and Minister of State for the AYUSH sector. He said that there are around 12,500 centers which are runs under Central Government. He further mentioned that it is the responsibility of the industry to provide quality and standardized medicines to the country and also thanked the industry for raising the standards. He further urged the AYUSH Chikitsaks to be more involved with the industry for research & innovation.

Mr. Pradeep Multani, while welcoming all mentioned that Innovations and new ideas aim to bridge the gap between traditional AYUSH knowledge systems and the contemporary conventional knowledge practice. He further said that this is essential to promote integration and mainstreaming of AYUSH systems in national health care programs, which have long been visualized to be the sole way forward. Mr.Multani also thanked for the recent initiative taken by the Ministry of AYUSH along with Invest India to promote innovation and reward it by proposing a competitive scheme to drive innovation in the sector.

Mr.Arvind Varchaswi mentioned that AYUSH has a huge potential to promote better health and thus positively impact the Indian economy. It is witnessing a meteoric rise on the back of promotional and educational initiatives by the Government, medical tourism, and consumer awareness regarding the advantages of using alternative medicines. He further said that scientific research in AYUSH should be broad-based and not limited to drug discovery where there is an utmost need to launch a programme that can strengthen AYUSH Sector, create more Enterprises, Job Creation to support Indian Economy, like the one initiated by the Ministry. He further mentioned that innovation and research is very much important for any sector to grow.

 Mr. Jitender Sodhi said that the market strategies including cost reduction and quality performance will have to be evolved through alternative models of the health care system. He also mentioned that the budget allocation to AYUSH sector by the Government of India should be adequately raised to increase investment in programs and activities that promote innovation. Such an investment could be in the form of sponsoring R&D which will definitely make it stand out as different than the conventional approach.

Dr. Rajiv Rai mentioned about the areas of opportunity in the AYUSH sectors like Academics & Research by promoting post graduate teaching centres & research centre for research based product development. Second is Industry where the units must be WHO-GMMP certified and to provide the quality products. Third is service sector where the hospitals should be in pollution free areas & linked with tourism. The fourth is cultivation where he mentioned that availability of genuine and sustainable raw material is the biggest weakness of AYUSH sector and should be worked upon. He further said that the opportunity exist is of around 80,000 crores.

Dr.Santosh Joshi talked about tradition medicine should adopt a modern science techniques and better technology for the advancement. He said Ayurveda offers various methods to manage lifestyle disorder diseases by following daily regimens. He highlighted that there's an utmost need for improvement and adoption of new innovations& technologies available in the market for the medicine like herbal extracts for their better results.Dr. Joshi also mentioned that there's a need for strandazation of pharmacopeia in the sector for the growth of the Industry. 

Dr.Vijendra Prakash shared a brief presentation and talked about immense scope for young entrepreneurship in AYUSH various services and products. He said there's a wide scope in Speciality medicines and great potential for medicine for sports, Neuro care, Yoga & tourism and in formulation and development of products. He also talked about new emerging opportunities for start-ups in preclinical certification laboratories and various marketing platforms available in Innovation & Entrepreneurship in the sector.

Mr.Vivek Seigell gave a formal vote of thanks by thanking all eminent dignitaries for sparing their valuable time and sharing insight about today's topic. He further thanked all the sponsors and media partners for their continuous support.

The webinar was sponsored by Association of Manufacturers of Ayurvedic Medicine (AMAM) and AYUSH Herbs Pvt Ltd and it was attended by more than 80 delegates from the Industry &academia.