Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS)

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2-Sep-2022: CCRAS ‘SPARK’ Program to Support Innovative Research in Ayurveda

The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), has taken a unique initiative to support the research efforts of bright young minds of the Country by developing the Studentship Program for Ayurveda Research Ken (SPARK) for Ayurveda (BAMS) students studying in recognised Ayurveda colleges.

Sh. Pramod Kumar Pathak, Special Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, Government of India and Vaidya Jayant Yeshwant Deopujari, Chairman, National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM) launched the fellowship scheme and the application portal in the presence of Prof. Sanjeev Sharma, Director-cum-Vice Chancellor In-Charge, National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur and Prof. R.N. Acharya, Director General, CCRAS, Dr. Sulochana Bhatt, Director, CARI, Bengaluru, Dr. M.M. Rao, Director, CARI, Bhubaneswar and Research Officers of the Institute at Central Ayurveda Research Institute, Bhubaneswar on 2nd September 2022 in an event organized to mark the occasion.

While lauding the efforts of CCRAS, the Special Secretary said, “CCRAS has taken many commendable initiatives in recent times, especially during the COVID-pandemic. The Council has not only developed popular formulations such as Ayush-64, it has as many as 18 formulations and technologies to its credit also.” He further added, “I am confident that the SPARK Program developed by the Council will support the innovative ideas of young students and promote the culture of evidence based scientific research in the field of Traditional Medicine.”

Prof. Rabinarayan Acharya, Director General, CCRAS informed, “with guidance and support from the Ministry of Ayush, CCRAS has developed and implemented a wide range of schemes and programs to serve the citizens.” While elaborating upon the recent initiatives of CCRAS including SPARK, the Director General also mentioned, “by developing meaningful collaborations with premiere academic research institutions within and outside of the country such as IIT, ICMR, ICAR, JNU, BHU, AIIMS, University of  and others, the Council has accelerated quality research activity in the domains of Ayurveda and allied sciences.” Prof. Acharya further added, “SPARK program is primarily developed to help students develop an acumen for research and to further support and incentivise their research ideas.”

While speaking about international collaborations, the Director General informed that the Council is currently working on research and development projects in collaboration with leading research institutions at Romania, Germany, Israel, USA, Canada and the World Health Organisation (WHO). Prof. Acharya also informed, “with an objective to complement the efforts of the Ministry of Ayush for promotion and propagation of Ayurveda education across the world, the Council has collaborated with premier educational institutions across the world and has set up Ayurveda Chair in 11 countries.

While sharing more details about the SPARK program Dr. Adarsh Kumar, Assistant Director (Ayurveda), CCRAS informed that ‘SPARK’ aims to support the research ideas of young undergraduate students enrolled in Ayurveda Colleges across India. The application process for SPARK will be completely online through the portal www.spark.ccras.nic.in.”

Further, Dr. Adarsh added, “Interested candidates will be required to submit their research proposals through the SPARK Portal. The proposals will be evaluated by eminent experts and reviewers. The selected fellows will be offered a financial support of Rs.50,000 under the fellowship. Initially there will be total 100 seats per session and further details may be accessed at the program portal.

25-Mar-2022: Ayurvedic medicines in tribal areas

The Ministry of Ayush has established Central Council of Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), New Delhi as an Autonomous Organization. It is an apex body in India for undertaking, coordinating, formulating, developing and promoting research on scientific lines in Ayurvedic sciences. The activities are carried out through its 30 Institutes/Centers/Units located all over India and also through collaborative studies with various Universities, hospitals and Institutes.

For the welfare of the tribal people, CCRAS is conducting a “Tribal Health Care Research Programme (THCRP)” under Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) through 14 CCRAS Institutes in identified ST Dominant Villages/Areas of 14 States (Annex) by providing health care services. Beside this, Council is documenting Local Health Traditions prevalent in the tribal areas. Activities carried out under this programme are:

  1. To study the living conditions of tribal people
  2. To collect information related to health statistics
  3. Study of dietetic habits 
  4. Nature and frequency of prevalent diseases etc.
  5. Documentation of use of common medicinal plants in the area
  6. Provision of incidental medical aid at their door steps
  7. Propagation of knowledge about Ayurvedic concept of Pathyapathya including hygiene habits, dietary practice through behavior change counseling (BCC) for prevention of diseases and health promotion by Providing IEC material.
  8. Documentation of demographic profile & Collect information on folk medicines/ traditional practices prevalent in the area.
  9. Prevention of disease by adopting healthy way of living & clean environment

The Ministry has developed a Central Sector Scheme for Promotion of International Co-operation in AYUSH (IC Scheme) under which Ministry of Ayush provides support to Indian Ayush Manufacturers/ Ayush Service providers to give boost to export of AYUSH products & services;  facilitate International promotion, development and recognition of AYUSH system of medicine; foster interaction of stakeholders and market development of AYUSH at international level; promote academics and research through establishment of AYUSH Academic Chairs in foreign countries and holding training workshop/symposiums for promoting and strengthening awareness and interest about AYUSH Systems of Medicine at international level.

Ministry of Ayush has taken following steps towards promoting export of Ayurvedic medicines:

  1. Ministry has signed 25 country to country MoUs  for Cooperation in field of Traditional Medicine and Homoeopathy with foreign nations.
  2. 32 MoUs have been signed with international institutes for undertaking Collaborative Research / Academic collaboration.
  3. 14 MoUs have been signed with international institutes for setting up of Ayush Academic Chairs in foreign nations.
  4. Ministry of Ayush has provided support for establishment of 38 Ayush Information Cells in 34 foreign nations.
  5. The “Ayush Export Promotion Council” has been registered under section 8(4) of the Companies Act 2013 on 04.01.2022 under the Ministry of Ayush in support of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to tackle the obstacles for registration of AYUSH products abroad, undertaking of market studies and research activities abroad
  6. Ministry of Ayush provides scholarship to foreign nationals under AYUSH Fellowship scheme.
  7. MoUs have been signed with London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSH&TM), UK and Frankfurter Innovationszentrum Biotechnologie GmbH (FIZ), Frankfurt Germany for clinical research studies on mitigation of COVID-19 through Ayurveda.
  8. Ministry of Ayush issued advisories on protecting people from COVID and staying healthy in English as well as in 08 other foreign languages.
  9. Ministry of Ayush provides AYUSH Educational Training to regulators of foreign nations.

6-Feb-2018: CCRAS developed and commercialized Ayurvedic Drugs

The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), an autonomous body under the Ministry of AYUSH is actively involved in scientific process of drug development adopting prevalent guidelines such as Good Clinical Practices Guidelines for ASU drugs (GCP-ASU), Ministry of AYUSH and National ethical guidelines for Bio-Medical Research (ICMR), WHO guidelines for traditional medicines etc. as per requirement and as feasible through its peripheral institutes. Council through its drug development program is undertaking development of new formulations/drugs taking leads from Ayurvedic literature through a systematic process of drug development. viz standardization, preclinical safety & clinical study as per requirement.

CCRAS has developed and commercialized the following two drugs:

  1. AYUSH 82 An Anti-Diabetic Ayurvedic Formulation.
  2. AYUSH SG An Anti-Rheumatoid Arthritis preparation.

CCRAS has also undertaken the development of the following coded formulations which are at different phases of drug development:-

  1. AYUSH Manas for Mental retardation/cognitive deficit
  2. AYUSH QOL 2C for improving Quality of Life of Cancer patients
  3. AYUSH Rasayan A & B in geriatric health
  4. AYUSH C1 Oil for wound healing
  5. AYUSH PJ-7 for Dengue fever
  6. AYUSH M-3 for Migraine
  7. AYUSH SL for Filariasis
  8. AYUSH A for Bronchial Asthma
  9. AYUSH D for Type II Diabetes Mellitus
  10. Carctol S for Cancer
  11. AYUSH K1 for Chronic Kidney Diseases