New Delhi (NVI): The Rajya Sabha today passed the Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda Bill, 2020, which was moved by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in the absence of Ayush Minister Sripad Naik.
The bill seeks to establish an Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (ITRA), in Jamnagar, Gujarat which will be given the status of an Institution of National Importance (INI).
However, the proposed Institute will be situated on the campus of Gujarat Ayurved University, Jamnagar.
The bill has the provision to merge three Ayurveda institutes situated in Jamnagar, Gujarat into one. The institutes are, the Institute of Post-Graduate Teaching and Research in Ayurveda, Shree Gulabkunverba Ayurved Mahavidyalaya and the Indian Institute of Ayurvedic Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Ministry of AYUSH said in a statement.
These institutions had come up over the past many decades, and together made a unique family of Ayurveda institutions existing in close proximity, it said.
The ministry said it is expected that the enactment of the proposal will further provide autonomy to the institute to develop patterns of teaching in undergraduate and postgraduate education in Ayurveda and Pharmacy.
The synergies among the different constituent institutions will help ITRA to demonstrate high standards of such education and to emerge as a lighthouse institution to the entire AYUSH Sector, it added.
It is also expected to provide the highest level of training of personnel in all important branches of Ayurveda including Pharmacy, and to take up in-depth study and research in the field of Ayurveda, the ministry said.
Earlier, the Bill was passed in Lok Sabha’s budget session on March 19.
The ministry informed that, ITRA will be the first institution with INI status in the AYUSH Sector, and this will enable the institution to be independent and innovative in the matter deciding course content and pedagogy.
The decision comes at a time when global interest in health solutions based on traditional wisdom is at an unprecedentedly high level and ITRA is poised to take Ayurveda education to new vistas, it added.
-RJV
