Aiming to help the ayurveda, sidha, unani and homoeopathy sectors to tide over the current state of poor laboratory facilities, the Department of Ayush has decided to provide a 30 per cent grants to these units to purchase sophisticated equipments to modernise their laboratories.

Sources in the Department of Ayush said that the government will provide 30 per cent grants to these industries to set up good quality in-house labs. The grants will be up to a maximum of Rs 30 lakh. Ayush companies up to Rs 20 crore turnover will be eligible for the grant as the government's intention is to assist the small companies who are not in a financial position to purchase costly equipments to set up quality in-house labs to test the medicines.

Sources said that the scheme will be useful to the industries as lack of good quality labs has been a major problem with the Ayush industries in the country. Under this unit specific scheme, the government will extend the scheme to the companies to upgrade their existing units to match their units with the internationals and US FDA standards.

Those units which desire to utilise the benefits under this scheme should submit a detailed proposal to the department of Ayush. The department will verify the credentials of the proposal before approving the proposal and will release the grant through banks.

The scheme will be a good opportunity to the Ayush industries to set up good quality labs to test their medicines, especially in the wake of complaints and objections from exporting countries about the Indian Ayush products on the ground that they contain toxic materials like heavy metals, pesticide residues, microbial contents and aflotoxins above the acceptable limits.

When the objection on the Indian Ayush products reached its crescendo, the Union Commerce Ministry had recently proposed a 'certification scheme' for the Ayush exporters under which all Ayush products shall be subject to quality control and inspection prior to export by the Export Inspection Council (EIC), Ministry of Commerce. But, under industry pressure, the scheme has been put on hold for one year.

The Commerce Ministry's proposal came due to the fact that the Ayush exporters in India were experiencing several difficulties as many countries have taken objections on the Indian ayurvedic products on the ground that they contain toxic materials. These substances are considered unsafe for health, if it is more than the permissible limits. These findings had an adverse effect on the Ayush exporters in the country.