HQ Team
February 2, 2023: India’s federal budgetary allocation to the so-called Ayush Ministry, which oversees traditional healing systems, has increased by 20 percent to INR3647cr.
The annual budget for the financial year through 31 March 2024, tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 1 February, has also emphasized on promoting evidence-based research in Ayush systems through Ayush research councils.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently talked about the need for evidence-based generation of the database for ayurveda, which will fulfill the parameters of modern science. The higher budget allocation to Ayush research councils and institutes reflects this commitment, per a government press release.
Budgetary allocation to the government-sponsored National Ayush Mission (NAM) has been given a 50 percent boost to INR1200cr. NAM is majorly focused on providing cost-effective Ayush Services with universal access, through the up-gradation of Ayush hospitals and dispensaries, among other initiatives.
NAM also supports the cultivation of medical plants, the production of quality and standardized ingredients for the Ayush ecosystem, integration of medicinal plants in farming systems and the increasing export of value-added items of medicinal plants.
All states (INR920cr), union territories (INR96cr) and the north-eastern areas of India (INR231cr) have also witnessed an increase in grants-in-aids i.e from INR861.97cr to INR1246.73cr.
The budget considers the strengths of India’s traditional systems of medicine, the statement added. Other systems include yoga, homeopathy, unani, siddha, naturopathy and sowa-rigpa.
Future perfect
Eminent economist Arvind Panagariya has said that India is on the cusp of returning to a high growth trajectory and voiced confidence that the country will become the world’s third-largest economy by 2027-28.
At present, India is the fifth-largest economy, “so it’s another five years. We are already in (the year) 2023. So 2027-28, India should be the third-largest economy,” Panagariya, a professor at America’s Columbia University and the former vice chairman of the NITI Aayog, told the Press Trust of India in an interview in New York.
A day before Minister Sitharaman presented the Union Budget, the government’s Economic Survey pegged India’s GDP growth at 6.5 percent for the 2023-24 financial year.
