Governance
AYUSH Entrepreneurship Programme
- 01 May 2020
- 2 min read
Why in News
Recently, AYUSH Entrepreneurship Development programme was jointly organized by the Ministry of AYUSH and Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) for promoting the AYUSH sector in the country under different Schemes of the Ministry of MSME.
Key Points
- AYUSH stands for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Sidha and Homeopathy.
- Challenges faced by the AYUSH sector:
- Quality standards of Medicines – Scientific validation of AYUSH has not progressed in spite of dedicated expenditure in the past.
- Lack of human resources – Practitioners are moving away from traditional systems for better opportunities.
- The existing infrastructure remains under-utilized.
- There is a great demand for Indian Ayurveda, Yoga, Homeopathy, Siddha in other countries, existing entrepreneurs can take this opportunity & open their clinics/ outlets there & support export.
- The raw materials of Ayurveda are usually found in Forest area, rural areas, tribal areas, aspiration districts & there is a need for Processing units, clusters there for Job creation, enterprise development, self employment.
- The two Ministries have drawn up an action plan for promoting AYUSH Sector. The plan includes roping AYUSH clusters in the schemes of the Ministry of MSME.
- Major AYUSH clusters include: Ahmedabad, Hubli, Thrissur, Solan, Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kannur, Karnal, Kolkata and Nagpur.
- Following are the schemes:
- Zero Defect Zero Effect/Lean – Good Manufacturing Practice.
- Procurement & Marketing Support Scheme – National/International Trade, fair, Exhibition, Government e-Marketplace, Packaging, E-Marketing, Export.
- Advanced Training Institute (ATI) – Capacity Building & Skill Development.
- Entrepreneurship Skill Development Programme (ESDP), Incubation – Start-Up/Enterprise Development.
- Credit Linked Credit Subsidy (CLCS), Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) – Financial support
