New Delhi, Feb 12 (PTI) As experts from various South-East

Asian countries got together to discuss joint strategies on the use of traditional medicines at an international conference, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said time has come to take up a common regional agenda in the field. "The discussions and outcomes of the conference would be a vision for action and strategic implementation in the South East Asia Region countries in traditional medicines," Azad said at the international conference here on traditional medicine for South-East Asian countries. Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare S Gandhiselvan said taking note of the global developments in the area of drug control, the Ministry has contemplated to set up a separate Central Drug Controller of AYUSH to oversee and strengthen the regulatory regime of traditional Indian medicines and homeopathic drugs. Azad earlier said India has a pluralistic healthcare delivery system to provide integrated and holistic healthcare services in the country where there was peaceful co-existence of Allopathy with Ayurveda, Yoga, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa, Unani and Homoeopathy. He said all these medical systems are being utilised in the national healthcare delivery system, each to its potential and availability in different parts of the country. "The aim is to provide accessible, affordable, safe and quality healthcare to the people," he said. He said modern advanced technologies like Genomics are also being used to study the fundamental concepts of Prakriti - body constitution described in Ayurveda, and AYUSH drugs are being studied with advanced techniques for their activity on immune systems in disease like HIV-AIDS, for anti-cancer activity and anti-diabetic activity. Regional Director General of WHO, Samlee Plianbangchang, outlined the steps to be taken for promoting such medicines in SEARO countries, while Secretary Ayush Anil Kumar appreciated strengths of traditional medicine in prevention and control of Non-Communicable Diseases and recommended for strengthening these systems by solid research. The conference was attended by Health Ministers of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Minister of Indigenous Medicine of Sri Lanka, Ambassadors from invited countries and experts from across the world.