Union Minister of Ayush and Ports, Shipping & Waterways Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, said today that the Ministry should promote Ayush Aahar throughout the country. This will also help saving the youth from the ills of junk food. The Minister was visiting the Central Councils Common Building Complex (CCCBC) in Janakpuri, New Delhi where he interacted with officers and scientists of all five research councils and two National Commissions under the Ministry that are located in the premises.

It is noteworthy that the Minsitry of Ayush is promoting Ayush based diet & lifestyle and is working in convergence with the Ministry of Women & Child Development in the Poshan Abhiyan to realize the ultimate goal of ‘Suposhit Bharat’. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in convergence with Ministry of Ayush has also released draft guidelines on Ayush Aahar, which will facilitate standardized Ayush based Aahar.

The research councils namely, the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), the Central Council for Research in Yoga & Naturopathy (CCRYN), the Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) and the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH) have their headquarters located in the building whereas the Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS) has its satellite office in the building complex. Further, the recently constituted National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM) and the National Commission for Homoeopathy (NCH) have their offices in the building premises. Today was the first visit of the Minister to the Research Councils and National Commissions.

In the interactive session with officials and scientists, the Minister emphasized on the involvement of people till the grassroot level. He also added that team spirit and hard work is needed to bring in effective change. The results of hard work of the fraternity including the scientists, professors, doctors, technicians need to be propagated across the country and all around the world. He further said that the experience and expertise of the senior officials of the Councils, Commissions need to be utilised to enhance Ayush propagation.

During the interaction, Ayush Secretary, Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha stressed on two things. He stressed that competency building should be the priority of all councils and ‘our research councils should develop such modalities that various units attached with these councils get more freedom to innovate’.

During the visit the Minister also released the book titled ‘Quality and Safety of select Rasakalpa - Metal & Mineral based Ayurvedic Formulations, Volume:6’. The book deals with Standard Operative Procedures, Chemical Analysis and preclinical Safety/toxicity studies on Trivanga Bhasma (calcined mixture of tin, lead & zinc) carried out in various institutes. He also launched the NCISM Portal which will be utilized to collect details of activities and programmes conducted under the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ campaign which is connecting 75000 educational institutions from across the country.

The Minister further visited the Ethno-medico-Botanical division of CCRAS where he interacted with the scientists at length on issues ranging from routine functioning to specific research activities. The Minister appreciated the efforts of the Council in the direction of tribal welfare. He also instructed that more efforts may be put in for understanding the local health traditions of tribal communities who maintain a good health without ever visiting modern healthcare facilities.

Further, he visited CCRUM library and was briefed by about the large collection of about 200 manuscripts and as many as 17000 scientific documents. He was also informed about the scientific activities and publications of CCRUM. The Minister also showed keen interest in the research publications of the Council. During his visit to the offices of CCRAS, the Minister inspected various divisions of the Council and interacted with the heads of the divisions and staff members.

The NCISM Chairman, Vaidya Jayant Deopujari, informed the Minister that the current focus of the Commission is on two issues one, developing competency based curriculum; second, rating and permission of Ayush educational institutions. He further added that the commission is trying to include more than 3 lakh Ayush practitioners in the national registry of NCISM where about 28000 practitioners from 10 states have already been included.

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