Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today inaugurated the Global Ayush Investment & Innovation Summit 2022 at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The three day Ayush global summit will witness a dialogue with entrepreneurs, industry, startups and other stakeholders to encourage them to increase investment for innovation in Ayush as the sector continues to showcase colossal room for growth.

The inaugural session for the Global Ayush Investment & Innovation Summit 2022 witnessed the presence of the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Shri Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Union Minister for AYUSH Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Bhupendra Patel, Dr. Munjpara Mahendra Kalubhai, Minister of State and ambassadors, foreign dignitaries, investors, industry experts and other important stakeholders.

In his inaugural speech Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi said, “We are already witnessing unprecedented growth in the production of Ayush medicines, supplements and cosmetics. In 2014, where the Ayush sector was less than $3 billion, today it has increased to more than $18 billion. An unprecedented efforts has been made in the past years to promote the export of Ayush products.”

Many new initiatives in Ayush sector was announced by the Prime Minister, first being a special Ayush mark for Ayush products. This will give people all over the world the confidence of quality Ayush products. Government will develop a network of Ayush parks to encourage the promotion, research and manufacturing of Ayush products across the country. A new category named 'Ayush Aahar' was announced which will greatly facilitate the producers of herbal nutritional supplements.

Further, another major initiative for foreign nationals who want to come to India to take advantage of Ayush therapy was announced. India will soon introduce a special Ayush visa category. Describing the current age, the era of unicorns, the Prime Minister informed that in the year 2022 itself, so far 14 start-ups from India have joined the Unicorn Club. “I am sure unicorns will emerge from our Ayush start-ups very soon”, he stated.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi announced launch of Ayush Export Promotion Council and four Ayush ICT initiatives which includes Ayush Information Hub, AyuSoft, Ayush Next and Ayush GIS. Prime Minister also released   a comic book named ‘Professor Ayushman’, which describes how Ayush systems and products helped in fighting not only COVID-19 but other diseases also. 

On this occasion, the Prime Minister distributed awards to the winners of 'Ayush Start-up Challenge’ organised by All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) in association with Start-up India. The inaugural session also included signing of 5 Memorandum of Understanding among global institutions and governments. Rashtriya Ayurveda Vidyapeeth (RAV) MoU with Argentina, Tripartite MoU between All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) and Brazil on the establishment of academic collaboration in Ayurveda. MoU between All Indian Institute of Ayurveda and University Health Network, Toronto (UHN), Canada, MoU for the establishment of the Ayurveda Chair at Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), Mexico and MoU between NIA, Jaipur and Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC) on cooperation in the field of Ayurveda and other Traditional System of medicine.

Addressing the session, Dr. Tedros said that the Ayush sector is growing significantly – by 17 percent per year since 2014. He said that  Ayush industry is projected to reach 23 billion US dollars by the end of this year. “We are exploring innovative study designs and the use of artificial intelligence to document the impact of traditional medicine practices, in cases when standard randomized trials are not possible or are difficult to undertake. Strengthening the evidence base of traditional medicine should facilitate its use by communities, to promote better health outcomes, economic benefits and overall impact” he added.

On this occasion, Shri Pravind Kumar Jugnauth congratulated Government of Gujarat on the launch of the WHO Global Center of Traditional Medicine and said that Mauritius have recognized that traditional medicine complements modern medicine.

In his address, Union Minister of Ayush Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, said, “Global Ayush Investment & Innovation Summit is expected to develop awareness among stakeholders about the business opportunities, encouraging young entrepreneurs to use of modern technologies and modern innovations to highlight opportunities at global level. The deliberations in the Summit are expected to educate the young entrepreneurs about the various possibilities of business development in Ayurveda sector.”

He added that Ministry of Ayush and Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) are developing Entrepreneurship among Ayurveda and other traditional medicines professionals. Ministry of Ayush has also developed the Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) to encourage young entrepreneurs to establish startups in Ayush in line with the Startup India Initiative of Prime Minister.

The three-day summit will witness 5 plenary sessions, 8 roundtables, 6 workshops, and 2 symposiums, with the presence of around 90 eminent speakers and 100 exhibitors. The Summit will help uncover investment potential, and give a fillip to innovation, research & development, start-up ecosystem, and the wellness industry. It will help bring together industry leaders, academicians and scholars together and act as a platform for future collaborations.

The Global Ayush Investment & Innovation Summit will be in progress till April 22, 2022 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat and commenced a day after the Prime Minister inaugurated the WHO-Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar.

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MV/SK