Monday proved to be a historic and momentous day for the Ayush sector as five portals of importance were launched and four publications were released by the Union Minister of Ayush (IC) Shri Kiran Rijiju in an online event. The Minister also reminded that Ayush is going to play a big role in the National Digital Health Mission to provide health security to Indian people.

At a virtual event, the Minister launched CTRI portal pertinent to Ayurveda Dataset along with AMAR, RMIS, SAHI and e-Medha portals. He also released four publications related to the Traditional Indian Medicine System of India and lauded the collaborative efforts of ICMR and Archaeological Survey of India for these initiatives.

After the inclusion of dataset pertinent to Ayurveda in CTRI portal, the Ayurveda Clinical Trials would have worldwide visibility and will further the cause of strengthening Ayurvedic Research. Similarly, SHAHI portal incorporates authentic resources and will be of immense help in showcasing historical veracity of Ayurveda. With the help of e- Medha portal anyone can have online access to more than 12 thousand books. These books are related to Indian Medical Heritage and can be accessed through NIC’s e- granthalaya platform. AMAR portal, which was also launched today, is a repository for Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Sowa- Rigpa Manuscripts and catalogues. Another Portal CCRAS- Research Management Information System or RMIS in short, is a research guidance platform.

While lauding the efforts of Ayush team in developing the portals, the Minister said that Indian Digital Health Mission is going to be the biggest programme in the Indian health sector and every effort is done to maximize the role of Ayush in it. The Minister termed development of portals as revolutionary, robust and momentous and said that as Indians, we all should take pride in our national heritage, customs and traditions. There is a mindset to look down on traditional Knowledge systems, referring to them as a thing of the past, or of no modern significance and unscientific. “We need to counter this and we need to celebrate our success in rediscovering our past, our national heritage and our traditional medicine system,” He said.

The Minister also pointed out many other digital initiatives of Ayush Ministry and said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi took every step to put Ayush in the forefront.

Prior to this, National Research Professor, Ayush, Bhusan Patwardhan termed the launching of portals as Historic and said some recent findings of Archaeology in Kashmir and Telangana are indicative of surgical interventions in India way back some 4000 years. Padma Shri Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha,Secretary, Ayush said that in the last few years there has been every effort to access everything related to Ayush Grid in digital form.

Brief overview and significance of the portals launched……

1. Ayurveda Dataset on Clinical Trial Registry of India- CTRI is a primary Register of Clinical Trials under the world health Organization’s International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. Creation of Ayurveda Data Set in CTRI facilitates the usage of Ayurveda Terminologies to record clinical study based on Ayurveda interventions. This is a great step towards a worldwide visibility for Ayurveda based Clinical Trials.

2. CCRAS-Research Management Information System- A collaborative effort of ICMR and CCRAS, this portal will be a one stop solution for Research and Development in Ayurveda based studies. Free of cost research guidance by experienced Scientists, Clinicians of Ayurveda can be availed through this portal. Research tools, reference material are also in place in this portal.

3. E-Medha (electronic Medical Heritage Accession) Portal- Online public access catalog for more than 12000 Indian medical heritage books through NIC’s e-granthalaya platform.

4. AMAR (Ayush Manuscripts Advanced Repository) Portal- This Portal is of immense value and it has digitized information on rare and hard to find Manuscripts and catalogues of Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa in libraries or in individual collections across India or in other parts of the world.

5. SHAI (Showcase of Ayurveda Historical Imprints) Portals- This portal showcases inscriptions, Archeo-botanical Information, Sculptures, Philological sources and advanced Archeo Genetic studies. This portal will be of tremendous use in understanding of Indian Knowledge system with a focus on indigenous health care practices.

Apart from these five Portals, four publications were also released by the Ministry of Ayush.

1. Proceedings of International workshop on” Preservation and Promotion of SOWA-RIGPA in Asia

2. Compendium of Important Cereals mentioned in Ayurveda-Series-1, volume-1

3. Ayurveda Sangraha: An important classical textbook of Ayurveda which is mentioned in the Schedule 1 of Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940. Up till now this book was available in Bengali language. Now it has been transliterated to Devanagari Script.

4. PathapathyaVinishcaya- An important book of Ayurveda and has details of diet and lifestyle.

SK