India to assist Nepal in Ayurveda Research, says Nepalese PM Pushpakamal Dahal

Kathmandu, Nepal: Prime Minister of Nepal Pushpakamal Dahal, also known as “Prachanda”, on Friday, asked the neighbouring country – India, for assistance in studying and exploring Ayurveda in the Himalayan country. Prachanda declared at the opening of the 7th International Ayurveda Congress that his government would encourage health tourism by making Ayurveda more well-known and would make choices to organise the imports and exports of the most important medicinal herbs.

He pledged to revitalise and modernise Singhdurbar Vaidyakhana, Nepal’s oldest enterprise producing ayurvedic medicines (now called Singhdurbar Vaidyakhana Bikash Samiti). “The necessity to fully operate the National Ayurveda Research and Training Institute and enhance research on local herbs will be taken into consideration while making policy decisions,” he added.

According to Prachanda, “The government is developing a plan to set up a facility in each of the seven provinces for producing Ayurvedic medications and gathering and processing medicinal herbs.”

In order to assist Nepal in its research and investigation of Ayurveda, the prime minister requested assistance from the Ministry of Ayush of India. The occasion, which started on Friday, was also attended by Naveen Srivastava, the Indian Ambassador to Nepal. He claimed that by creating the Ministry of Ayush, the Indian government had given Ayurveda top priority and promoted it.

According to him, several attempts have already been made to foster collaboration and cooperation between the two nations in order to promote naturopathy and Ayurveda as well as the cultivation of medicinal herbs. To make the process of Ayurveda medicines making easier, Prachanda pledged that measures would be taken to decrease the barriers to the import and export of the most vital medicinal herbs.

Prachanda promised government assistance for herb production and that circumstances will be developed for exporting therapeutic herbs.

“We should prioritise constructing Ayurveda hospitals, sponsoring exploration and research into Ayurvedic medications, beginning large-scale production of such medicines, and promoting Ayurvedic education,” he stated.

In order to encourage health tourism in Nepal, Prachanda emphasised the necessity of constructing more Ayurvedic hospitals, wellness centres, and yoga and meditation studios. He added that a policy decision had already been made in this regard.

He added that the government intended to build 100-bed Ayurvedic hospitals in each of the nation’s seven regions.

The three-day conference aims to popularise the Ayurveda system of medicine and promote health tourism. About a dozen nations, including India, Germany, Australia, and The Netherlands, are represented by Ayurveda experts, researchers, government officials, entrepreneurs, and doctors.

According to the General Secretary of the Ayurveda Doctors Association of Nepal, Dr Kopila Adhikari, the conference is being organised in cooperation with Ayurveda-related national as well as international organisations, including the Nepal Maharishi Vedic Foundation (NMVF) and the International Maharishi Foundation.

The three-day conference with the topic “Ayurveda for all health” began in Kathmandu on Friday, and more than 250 people, including 100 from abroad, are participating, she said.

Dipak Prakash Banskota, president of the NMVF, expressed the expectation that the conference would contribute to the global dissemination of knowledge about Nepal’s traditional ayurveda system and Ayurvedic medications.

The Maharshi International University of the Netherlands and Kathmandu University joined forces to do research and investigation on yoga and meditation after signing a Memorandum of Understanding.