Union Minister of Ayush Sarbananda Sonowal visits location of groundbreaking for world’s first Global Centre for Traditional Medicine
Jamnagar, Gujarat, April 8, 2022: Today, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister, Ayush and Vaidya Rajesh Kot echa, Secretary, Ayush visited the site in Jamnagar for the groundbreaking of the WHO Global Centre for Tradi tional Medicine. Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Ayush had signed the host Country Agreement with World He alth Organization (WHO) for establishing the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) in India.
The groundbreaking ceremony for GCTM, which will take place on 19th April in Jamnagar, Gujarat will be graced by the presence of Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh ri Narendra Modi and the Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros Gh ebreyesus. The Union Minister and Secretary of the Ayush Ministry travelled to the site of the ceremony in Jam nagar and took stock of the preparations. After the site visit, the Union Minister held a review meeting with dist rict officials and add res sed the press about the Global Centre of Traditional Medicine, discussed the key highli ghts of the partnership between the Ayush Ministry and the WH O and emphasized the ever increasing impor tance of traditional medicine in a post-COVID world.
Commenting on the upcoming groundbreaking ceremony, Shri Sarbananda Son awal, said, “The primary objective of the Global Centre for Traditional Medicine is to integrate the benefits of traditional medicine from across the world with modern science and technology. This initiative will help develop affordable and reliable health services for India as well as the glo bal community and we only have Prime Minister Modi to thank for this. Bringing together modern science, inno vation and traditional medicine will pave the way for building a sustainable healthcare system. We look forward to the upco ming event in Jamnagar to celebrate the collaborative and strategic efforts by the W.H.O. and the Government of India.”
While Jamnagar will serve as the hub, the new Centre is being designed to engage and benefit all regions of the world. GCTM shall focus on four main strategic areas: evidence and learning; data and analytics; sustainability and equity; and innovation and technology to optimize the contribution of traditional medicine to the global health. It will focus on building solid evidence base for policies and standards on traditional medicine practices and products and help countries integrate it as appropriate into their health systems and regulate its quality and safety for optimal and sustainable impact.
About the Ministry of AYUSH
The Ministry of Ayush was formed on the 9th of November 2014 with a vision of reviving the profound knowled ge of our ancient systems of medicine and ensuring the optimal development and propagation of the Ayush sys tems of healthcare. Earlier, the Department of Indian System of Medicine and Homoeopathy (ISM&H) forme d in 1995, was responsible for the development of these systems. It was then renamed as the Department of Ayurv eda, Yoga, and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (Ayush) in November 2003 with focused attention towards education and research in Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy.
