‘Need to link ancient cures and modernity', says PM Narendra Modi

PM Modi said the government was working towards bringing in more professionals in the field of Ayush and necessary steps are being taken to that effect.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi confers Yoga Award to Bihar School of Yoga’s Swami Niranjan in the national capital on Friday. (Photo | Shekhar Yadav, EPS)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi confers Yoga Award to Bihar School of Yoga’s Swami Niranjan in the national capital on Friday. (Photo | Shekhar Yadav, EPS)

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that although India has literature on curing serious illnesses dating back thousands of years, there has been little success in linking this ancient knowledge with modernity.

Speaking at the Yoga Awards ceremony in the national capital, Modi said that for the past five years the Ayush Ministry has been working on changing this approach by validating the ancient research in laboratories and presenting it in a way medical science can also understand.

“We also have the target of building 12,000 Ayush centres, of which 10 have been inaugurated in Haryana today. Our endeavour is to establish 4,000 such centres this year which means every block would have one such centre,” he said adding that 1.5 lakh healthcare and wellness centres are being built, of which AYUSH is also a critical component.

The centres inaugurated by the Prime Minister via video-conferencing are in Panchkula, Ambala, Kaithal, Karnal, Jind, Hisar, Sonipat, Gurugram, Faridabad and Nuh.

He also stressed on the need to create a homogenous system by creating an “Ayush grid” on the lines of One Nation, One Tax and One Nation, One Mobility Card.

Modi said after ayurveda, yoga, naturopathy, unani, sidda and homeopathy, sowa rigpa is being added as a member of the AYUSH family. An international centre to promote sowa rigpa is being built in Ladakh, he said.Sowa rigpa is a traditional Buddhist medicine practised in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kalimpong areas of West Bengal.

The prime minister said poor people have saved nearly Rs 12,000 crore by availing free treatment through the Ayushman Bharat Yojana.

Referring to his Cabinet’s decision of approving the construction of 75 new medical colleges in the country, he said the endeavour is to build one medical college in every district.

This, he said, will not only help in treating major illnesses but also lead to increasing 16,000 MBBS seats in the country. 

Modi also pitched for linking technology with tradition in the practise of Ayush medicine. He said the government was working towards bringing in more professionals in the field of Ayush and necessary steps are being taken to that effect

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