New Delhi: Joint Effort to Boost AYUSH Exports

The ministries of commerce and industry and AYUSH have decided to jointly set up an Export Promotion Council (EPC) to boost AYUSH exports.

This decision was taken at a joint review meeting held by the Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and the Minister of AYUSH Shripad Naik. The meeting was held through video conference on December 4 and was attended by nearly 50 industry and trade leaders from the AYUSH sector and more than 2,000 stakeholders through live streaming on virtual platforms, said an official press release.

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Secretary of AYUSH initiated the discussion where he briefed about the various other initiatives taken by the Ministry to mitigate the COVID-19 situation and to promote Industry along with emerging opportunities for promotion of the sector.

Highlighting the growing global interest in AYUSH based solutions for disease, resistance and treatment, Naik said that trade and commerce in the AYUSH sector needed to upscale quickly in order to meet the growing demands from India and abroad, and to serve the larger number of people who are now looking up to these systems for maintaining their health.

He also elaborated on the steps taken by the Ministry during the pandemic.

"The AYUSH immunity protocols and the National Clinical Management Protocol for Covid-19 for Ayurveda and Yoga were timely interventions which provided relief to large sections of the population. The emerging evidence of a correlation between the low Covid-19 mortality rates and large-scale adoption of AYUSH prophylactic solutions by the population is significant for the public health practice in the country," he added.

Praising the frontline role played by the AYUSH sector in battling COVID-19, Goyal said that the protection offered by the AYUSH systems to the common people during the pandemic time neutralized the scepticism that many people had about the efficacy of the medicines and products offered by these systems.

"The spurt in exports of AYUSH products in recent months is a direct reflection of their growing popularity in many countries. The standardization of the Harmonised System (HS) codes related to export will be considered on priority as a step to promote exports," he added.

The Commerce Minister also advised the industry leaders to work simultaneously on the quality and pricing of their products, so that they become increasingly competitive in the global market.

Supporting the concept of AEPC, Goyal said, "The continued support of Commerce Ministry would be available to the AYUSH sector on all matters of trade promotion, and special meetings with the functionaries of the ministry would be arranged as and when required, to discuss any important issue."

Assuring that the AYUSH will figure appropriately in the Brand India activities being presently undertaken, Goyal underlined the need for the industry and the government to work together in various aspects of branding and promotion.

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