SPPU, Centre collaborates to promote Ayush practices

The consortium comprises a group of institutions of national importance – Teaching Research in Ayurveda (ITRA), Jamnagar, Gujarat; National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA), Jaipur, Rajasthan and Rashtriya Ayurveda Vidyapeeth (RAV), New Delhi.

The Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) along with various national and international institutions have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the consortium of Ayush institutions. The collaboration aims to help in research activities, realising the need to study, understand, validate and integrate the Ayush systems, according to the varsity officials.

The consortium comprises a group of institutions of national importance – Teaching Research in Ayurveda (ITRA), Jamnagar, Gujarat; National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA), Jaipur, Rajasthan and Rashtriya Ayurveda Vidyapeeth (RAV), New Delhi.

The MoU was signed during a function that was organised at SPPU main building. Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, secretary, ministry of Ayush; Prof Nitin Karmalkar, SPPU vice-chancellor; Bhushan Patwardhan, vice-chairman, University Grants Commission (UGC) and senior officials from related organisations were present.

Patwardhan was appointed national research professor at Ayush.

“The MoU covers institutions that are involved in research work in Ayurveda. So, four national institutions have come together for capacity building and skill development related to Ayush practices. It marks a major step for SPPU and the initiative is led Kotecha and Patwardhan as it is their project and SPPU is a facilitator.” said Prof Karmalkar.

Talking about the plans post-signing of MoU, Patwardhan said, “The consortium represents the reputed institutions of Ayush ministry. As one of the major requirements in the Ayush sector is research capacity building, the collaboration will help meet that demand. While several steps were taken at the ministry level after the Covid outbreak, the MoU is the first step towards strengthening the science base of Ayurveda. So, we are not just talking about practices, but are actually undertaking robust research and this is just a humble beginning.”

Kotecha said, “The experience of the Covid-19 pandemic has given an opportunity to look at the potential of research in Ayush. A lot of scopes is seen based on science. We are into 114 studies as of now and these studies were robustly designed. They have given us results with effective human resource. If we upgrade these studies then it will be an asset for our country. People at large have accepted it, as it is at the hearts of the people and up gradation of human resource is necessary now for research projects. By establishing this consortium, we want to set up a benchmark in a few months so we can lead to a formal institution building.”

Read More:

• UniPune (Pune University) Courses & Fees 2021
• UniPune (Pune University) Admission 2020