Rijiju launches portals, publications on Ayurveda-based clinical trials

Marking a significant step towards worldwide visibility for Ayurveda-based clinical trials, five portals and four publications were launched by Union Minister of Ayush Kiren Rijiju on Monday.

The minister noted that AYUSH is going to play a big role in the National Digital Health Mission to provide health security to Indian people, an AYUSH ministry statement said.

He launched the Clinical Trials Registry-India (CTRI) portal pertinent to Ayurveda Dataset along with AMAR, RMIS, SAHI and e-Medha portals at a virtual event.

Rijiju also released four publications related to the Traditional Indian Medicine System of India and lauded the collaborative efforts of the ICMR and the Archaeological Survey of India for these initiatives, the statement said.

"After the inclusion of dataset pertinent to Ayurveda in CTRI portal, the Ayurveda clinical trials will have worldwide visibility and will further the cause of strengthening Ayurvedic research. Similarly, SHAHI portal incorporates authentic resources and will be of immense help in showcasing historical veracity of Ayurveda," the statement said.

With the help of e-Medha portal, anyone can have online access to more than 12,000 books. These books are related to the Indian medical heritage and can be accessed through NIC's e-granthalaya platform.

AMAR portal is a repository for Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Sowa- Rigpa manuscripts and catalogues, it said.

Another portal CCRAS- Research Management Information System or RMIS in short, is a research guidance platform.

While lauding the efforts of the AYUSH team in developing the portals, the minister said the Indian Digital Health Mission is going to be the biggest programme in the country’s health sector and every effort is done to maximise the role of Ayush in it, the statement said.

The minister also termed the portals as “revolutionary, robust and momentous” and said as Indians, we all should take pride in our national heritage, customs and traditions.

“There is a mindset to look down on traditional knowledge systems, referring to them as a thing of the past, or of no modern significance and unscientific. We need to counter this and celebrate our success in rediscovering our past, national heritage and our traditional medicine system,” he added.