A nodal Ayurvedic research institute is the next offering by the government’s AYUSH ministry. After setting up the nation’s apex Ayurvedic Institute, the All India Institute of Ayurveda at New Delhi, along the lines of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the next step from the government towards promoting Ayurveda is this Ayurvedic research institute.
The institute is slated to start functioning from 2016 and according to Shripad Naik, Minister of State for AYUSH Ministry, the government hopes to install such hospitals in every state in the country and an AYUSH hospital in every district. By utilizing the services of the AYUSH doctors who are estimated to number close to one lakh, the government will also be able to make up for the shortage of doctors in the primary health care centers.
In addition to this, the government hopes to make AYUSH accessible to all sections of society through its primary health care centers (PHC) that function under the National AYUSH Mission (NAM).
This new step on the part of the government is also to promote detailed research in the AYUSH fields so that formulations and medicines used in these medical traditions are clinically clear and their composition known. This will ensure transparency in the pharmacology of AYUSH drugs.
The Ayurvedic research institute will also serve to promote an integrated approach to the allopathic and AYUSH systems of medicine. As part of this, all AIIMS hospitals to be built in the different states will also be provided with AYUSH facilities. This will be in addition to some of the biggest hospitals across the nation that have already adopted an integrated approach to allopathy and AYUSH.