The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu today called for utilising Ayurveda’s extensive knowledge base on preventive care to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that natural remedies prescribed in Ayurveda can help us fight the virus by building our immunity.

Inaugurating online Global Ayurveda Summit with the theme ‘Ayurveda for immunity’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Naidu said that Ayurveda was not just a system of medicine but also a philosophy of life.

The Vice President said Ayurveda perceives humans as an integral part of nature and entails a holistic way of life where individuals are in harmony with themselves and with the world that surrounds them.

Elaborating on the therapeutic principles of Ayurveda, he said, it believes in maintaining a perfect balance between nature’s elements and the Tridoshas of the human body for a healthy state of living. “Ayurveda propounds that every individual has his unique constitution and responds differently to treatment and medication” he added.

Citing the examples of ancient texts such as Atharva Veda, Charaka Samhita and Sushrutha Samhita, Naidu said that since ancient times, India had a very systematic, scientific and rational approach to the treatment of diseases.

The Vice President praised Ayurveda for providing primary and even tertiary health care services to vast populations of India since ancient times.

Observing that Ayurveda must evolve constantly to remain relevant as an effective health care system, the Vice President urged private companies and the government to come together and set up a state of the art R&D facilities to develop and test new medicines.

Expressing the need to further explore the properties of  Ayurvedic medicines through well-documented scientific evidence, Naidu called for taking the benefits of Ayurveda to people across India and the world. Traditional medicines are cheaper and common people can afford them easily, he observed.

“India is already the source of affordable and quality drugs to the world. It can also become the healer to the world and the most preferred destination of wellness and medical tourism globally”, he added.

He also called for interdisciplinary interaction between traditional and modern systems of medicine so that they learn from one another and support each other in the quest for overall wellness.

Stressing the need to leverage modern technology for the growth of Ayurveda, the Vice President advised the players in Ayurveda to collaborate with bodies like the National Innovation Foundation and work toward popularizing Ayurveda globally.

Naidu also called for investing more resources in our traditional systems of medicine, especially by encouraging and promoting more health start-ups.

Expressing concern over the rising incidence of non-communicable and lifestyle diseases in India,  Naidu said that Ayurveda becomes especially relevant in such a scenario. He advised everyone to maintain a healthy lifestyle and eat healthy food. The food prescribed by our forefathers is best suited to our bodily needs and climatic conditions, he added.

The Vice President said that anxiety and fear of disease can be more fatal than the disease itself and advised to practice meditation and spirituality to overcome such anxiety.

He called for leveraging schemes such as Ayushman Bharat to take the benefits of Ayurveda to one and all. We must also ensure that our insurance sector supports Ayurveda, he said.

Recognising the employment generation potential of Ayurveda industry, the Vice President called for designing skilling programs in this filed. This will also help boost services export, he said.

V. Muraleedharan, Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs, Thomas John Muthoot, Chairman, CII, Baby Mathew, Co-Convenor, CII Ayurveda Panel, Ayurveda Industry heads, Ayurveda Association members, Ayurveda doctors and students were among those who participated in the online event.