'Central regulations for ayurvedic industry soon'

The AYUSH Ministryis planning to draw up a central regulatory framework for ayurvedic industry, an official said on Sunday.

"Presently, the total enforcement is on the hands of state licensing authorities. We are going to have some regulatory framework in the centre so that many issues related to regulations, quality control can be taken up with state level authorities," said Ministry's Adviser (ayurved) D.C. Katoch.

"If a licence is to be taken for the first time, the proposal should come to centre. The central technical committee will review the proposal and accordingly, the license should be cleared," he added.

The ministry is also mulling to take steps to stop false claims through advertisements, Kotch said on the sidelines of the AROGYA Expo and the seventh World Ayurvedic Congress here.

The ministry is looking to set up more clusters to facilitate small and medium enterprises in ayurvedic industry.

"The scheme for setting up clusters was started earlier. About 5-6 clusters across states are functional. The ministry has been considering proposals for setting up new clusters," said Katoch.

The government supports 60 per cent of the project cost while the industry players need to take care of 40 per cent of the cost, he said.

The ministry has also taken initiatives to standardise terminology used in the ayurvedic practices.

"There are many books in the ayurveda literature and there are many terms being used for a particular practice. These practices are not interpreted uniformly by the stakeholders. The meaning of these terms has to be standardised to globalise the understanding of ayurveda," said Katoch.

The ministry has entered into an agreement with World Healh Organisation (WHO) to develop some document for global positioning of ayurveda.

He further said that raw materials and medicinal plants are being sourced directly from the growers. The government has been planning to facilitate the setting up of mandis (marketplace) to strengthen buyers-growers interface.

"The ministry has been drawing up plans to facilitate the setting up mandis," he added.

--IANS

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