Leveraging global standards to promote traditional medicine

Title : Leveraging global standards to promote traditional medicine

Abstract:

India has centuries old tradition of medicine – ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha and homeopathy are considered as traditional medicine, are given a name AYUSH, have formal education and practice systems and have a dedicated Ministry to promote the sector. It is a significant part of India’s healthcare ecosystem and is duly regulated as medicine globally is – products, education and practice. In order to strengthen the sector further, the Government of India, through the Ministry of Ayush, embarked on a pioneering initiative to recognize Ayush products and services which meet global standards. The programme christened Ayush Quality Mark Programme was finally launched in Dec, 2025 by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India. The programme currently covers 7 sectors – Ayush Medicinal Products, Botanicals, Medicinal Plants, Hospitals/Day Care Centres/Clinics, Wellness Centres, Medical Value Travel Facilitators and Product Testing Laboratories. It is set to cover Education and Training in due course for which pathways have been identified. The programme has been housed for the time being in the Ayush Export Promotion Council (Ayushexcil). The Working Group for developing the programme set up by the Ministry of Ayush in Jan, 2025, studied the available standards and systems which could be deemed to be considered global, laid down the criteria for each of the categories of products and services generally providing multiple options for the industry to demonstrate compliance and specified the procedure for the grant of the Ayush Quality Mark. In the process, it also laid down requirements for the certifiers or accreditors, some times over and above the identified international standards or systems. The paper describes the experiences of development of the Programme and provides an insight into the considerations that determined the choice of global standards or systems in various sectors.

Biography:

Anil Jauhri has a master’s degree in civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, one of India’s top most engineering schools. However his entire professional career has been in the field of standards, certification, accreditation and technical regulations across various sectors – first in the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the national standards body of India, then the Export Inspection Council (EIC), the official regulator and certifying agency for exports and finally the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB), India’s national accreditation body and a constituent Board of the Quality Council of India (QCI) where he was the CEO from 2013 to 2019. He has spearheaded several certification programs in India for products, processes, management systems and personnel including those for traditional medicines, medicinal plants, traditional healers, yoga professionals and ayurveda education. He was chair of the Working Group set up by the Government of India to develop the Ayush Quality Mark Programme to recognize Ayush products and services which meet global standards and was launched in Dec, 2025. He continues to provide advisory services to several international and national organizations and among other things is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Research and Information Systems for Developing Countries, an official think tank.