Creating a  history, the India’s first Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit 2022 held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat witnessed letter of intents (LoIs) worth more than Rs.9000 crore  in major categories like FMCG, Medical Value Travel (Heal in India), Pharma, Technology & Diagnostic and Farmers & Agriculture.

The first ever mega event of this scale in Ayush sector facilitated agreements with international and national institutions and various other sectors, fuelling financial considerations, mutual research and increasing Ayush reach globally.

The assurances of investment include more than Rs. 7000 crore from FMCG, around 1000 crore from Medical Value Travel (MVT), around 345 Crores from Pharma sector, 300 crore for Farmers & Agri category and around Rs.60 crore  in the Technology & Diagnostic category.

Five significant MoUs were signed in the presence of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi during the inaugural session of the event on 20 April 2022.

During the event, a total of 12 MoUs were also signed between the Central Council for Research in Ayurveda Sciences (CCRAS), Ministry of Ayush and various prestigious research institutes in the country. The institutes include IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, ICMR NITM, AIIMS, CSIR, NIPER, NIMHANS, JNU, ICGB, AVP, TDU.

The first chapter of GAIIS saw very encouraging participation from more than 30 FMCG companies including Amul, Dabur, Kama Ayurveda, Accord, AyurVAID, Natural Remedies, Ambro Pharma and Patanjali. This is expected to create around 5.5 lakhs jobs which will positively impact the lives of more than 76 lakh people.

Facilitated by the National Medicinal Plant Board (NMPB), Ministry of Ayush, more than 50 MoUs were exchanged between the farmers groups and industry. These will involve over 6300 farmers and the produce is expected to be 4.5 thousand metric tonnes through these agreements.

One among international MoUs signed was between the Rashtriya Ayurveda Vidyapeeth (RAV), Ministry of Ayush and Fundacion de Salud Ayurveda prema (Ayurveda Prema Health Foundation), Argentina in the field of “the establishment of an academia collaboration in Ayurveda”. This would help in creating audit certification bodies used for accreditation and continuous improvement in curriculum development in different Ayurveda courses.

Another, tripartite MoU was signed between All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil & Brazilian Academic Consortium for Integrative Health (CABSIN), Brazil on the establishment of academic collaboration in Ayurveda. This will promote collaborations on research, advocating safety in the use of Ayurveda in Brazil.

An MoU was also signed between All Indian Institute of Ayurveda, Ministry of Ayush and University Health Network, Toronto (UHN), Canada to explore fellowship and graduate student training and mutual collaborations for training of medical doctors and allied health professionals etc.

Fourth MoU was signed by the Ministry of Ayush for the establishment of the Ayurveda Chair at Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), Mexico. Through this agreement, an Ayurveda doctor to be deputed in Ayurveda education in the university. A agreement was exchanged between Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC), Philippines and NIA, Jaipur, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Ayush on cooperation in the field of Ayurveda and other Traditional System of Medicine to act as a credible source of Ayurveda-related information in Brazil.

Other than international exchanges, an MoU was signed between the Ministry of Ayush and Ministry of Defence to start Ayush facilities in over 35 cantonment areas across India. During the event, the Ministry also exchanged an association with the Ministry of Science and Technology to promote cross collaboration with CSIR for joint PHD programmes and for Mechanistic studies in Ayush.

The event was organised to garner the attention of people in exploring the possible opportunities and potential of the Ayush sector as a whole and it has proved its impactfulness in paving the way for the growth of the sector both nationally and internally.

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MV/SK