TASK FORCE DECIDES TO STRENGTHEN
INDIAN SYSTEMS OF MEDICINE
The Task force on
pharmaceutical and knowledge based industries has concluded that
Indian Systems of Medicine need to be further strengthened in
the back-drop of the great role it continues to play since ancient
times in the health-care of the masses. Presiding over a meeting
of the Task Force here, the Chairman and Minister for Human Resource
Development and Science & Technology, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi
said that in fact cure not available for certain ailments in modern
Allopathy, is available in Indian traditional systems of medicine,
that too an effective one at a fraction of the cost of modern
drugs. Hence, he said the Task Force had decided to approach its
terms of reference in two segments i.e. one, issues relating to
pharmaceutical industries and the other, issues relating to traditional
medicines. To achieve the goal of " Healthy India" by 2010, the
Task force felt that strengthening Indian traditional medicine
systems is of vital importance.
The Task Force proposes
to achieve this, by blending traditional systems of medicine with
modern chemistry and biology to standardise them and create innovative
products; make Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM) based products
globally competitive, strengthen ISM labs for improved R&D,
modernise safety and clinical evaluation centres of ISM drugs
and bringing herbal and other traditional medicines under one
umbrella for maintaining standards of safety and efficiency.
