MSME, AYUSH ministries to develop traditional medicine enterprises

Ministries of MSME and AYUSH today joined hands for developing enterprises in the traditional medicine sector.

"The memorandum of understanding (MoU) will create synergies through the institutions and schemes of both ministries for the development of AYUSH enterprises in the country.The objective of this partnership is to position India as a world leader in Holistic Healthcare," an official statement said.

Under the partnership, the two ministries will organise regional workshops for entrepreneurship development. The MSME ministry will frame new schemes for AYUSH industries to avail benefits of lender to small industries - SIDBI.

AYUSH industry includes the Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy drug manufacturing units as well as healthcare delivery centres in public and private sectors and are essentially dominated by MSMEs.

"The domestic market for AYUSH sector has been increasing steadily over the past decade. There is also an acceptance of traditional medicines worldwide. Therefore, export of AYUSH products like food supplements, nutraceuticals and herbal extracts has increased significantly.

"In order to benefit from this the ministries of MSME and AYUSH have agreed to join hands for developing enterprises in this sector," the statement said.