Despite the fact that Gujarat is considered as the pharma hub of the country and the pharma sector as the sunshine industry of the the state as well, the ayurvedic sector, a part of Indian System of Medicines (ISM) is getting step- motherly treatment, according to industry insiders.
As per the data shared by Gujarat Ayurvedic Aushadh Manufacturers Association (GAAMA), the ASU sector ranks only as the 10th largest industry in the state with revenue of not more than two per cent. The association points out that unlike the other sector namely pharma, pharma machinery or medical devices, the ASU industry hardly gets any support from the state government. This is in spite of the fact that ayurveda has been a part of the Indian culture from the time immemorial.
Prabodh Shah, president of Gujarat GAAMA, informs that whatever growth the industry have seen in the years is a result of initiatives taken by the industry alone. “The ASU industry is a very niche sector with specific needs and requirements to meet the challenges of the competitive market. But unfortunately the government has been taking a passive approach towards the demands of the industry. Unless we give a boost to this the segment in line with other sectors, we fear that the sector will soon frizzle out under the current demanding situation,” stressed Shah.
Need for skill development
One of the biggest challenges faced by the industry today is the lack of skilled and qualified manpower to meet the rising demands of the industry. Adding to that is a string of rash decisions taken by the state government over the years, restricting the ayurveda colleges in the state from taking any new admissions. Since getting qualified students for the ASU industry became difficult, this lead to severe talent crunch in the state.
At present, there are only 10 colleges across the state offering study of ayuveda. Out of this only five colleges were given permission to take new admission till last year. Surprisingly this year not even a single college was given permission to take new admissions. According to Dr Punnar Vasu, general secretary, GAAMA, the industry has been repeatedly demanding to the government to establish new colleges or at least enable new admissions for the interested students. But instead of heeding to the woes of the industry and coming out with a plausible solution, the state body representing the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) which handles these issues took such decisions which are going to heavily impact the industry's future.
“The reason cited by the CCIM for restricting new admission is that they found these colleges to be ill-equipped to handle the students due to lack of qualified trained teaching staff or proper infrastructural support etc. But rather than taking a progressive step towards addressing these issues from the ground level ,they have taken a route which is completely unjustified and has the potential to destroy the already struggling industry. How do you think will the industry be able to generate skilled manpower if there are hardly any graduates to cater to our demands? There is lot of grey areas that the government should focus so as to ensure that the industry is not made to further suffer. One area that needs immediate attention is on generating skills for this segment,” says Dr Vasu.
GAAMA informed that the industry is very keen on working along with the government to address these issues. The industry is ready to explore the possibility of entering into an public private partnership (PPP) model with the government so as to develop a pool of skilled work force to address the issue of talent crunch in the state. It is high time the government came forward to support the industry by ensuring infrastructural support and other impetus, he added.
Representation at Vibrant Gujarat
In spite of being hailed as one of the greatest industrial events of this country, the Vibrant Gujarat summit was not of much help to the ASU sector compared to other sectors.
GAAMA pointed out that the summit hardly had any strong ASU representation or support from the government, as their focus area was clearly to propel the pharma and other big industry, which resulted in ASU industries interests getting a short shrift. In fact it is understood that, till now no land have been allotted for the ASU sector under the Vibrant Gujarat initiative, which reflects the level of neglect the industry is facing in the state. The only way to have an equal and fair opportunity to highlight the prospects of the ASU sector is through an active collaboration with the government in line with other sectors. The association also expressed its wish to explore the possibility of setting up an ASU cluster in the state with the government support in line with the pharma cluster that is already existing in the state.
With a view to get a fair representation for the ASU industry, the association is looking forward to initiate a tie up with the government in the forthcoming VG by extending its support to the Ayur Expo. “We strongly believe that the government support is a must for growth of any industry and hope that the state government will be forthcoming in its support for the sector for the upcoming event which is organized to highlight the essence of the industry to the world. There are a lot of issues that needs to be sorted out for once .
We are looking forward to see more government involvement and support in our initiative to propel the growth of this sector.”
Taking a leaf out of China book
The industry strongly feels that the government should take a lesson or two from the Chinese government in the way they have strengthened and propelled the growth of their traditional medicines sector not only within their country but globally as well. Over the years, the Chinese government has come out with a slew of pro-industry policies, subsidies, reimbursement schemes, tax exemptions etc for the industry which has helped the Chinese counterparts to establish a global foot print, GAAMA said.
Shah added that the Indian government should also take a serious view on this matter as the Indian manufacturers are finding it difficult to stand up to stiff Chinese competition, especially with their government supporting them with various incentives. “If the government really wants to see the industry thrive and not perish in the prevailing scenario, they will have to come out with some incentives or policies to support the growth of the industry. They need to spruce up strategies as the current policies are either outdated or not relevant to the industry. We would suggest to the government to go the Chinese way when it comes to adopting international policies or go the Kerala way for the national policies as the initiatives have helped industry flourish in a big way in the state,” Shah stressed.
According to GAAMA, one of the major areas that the government need to focus is on developing the research and development (R&D) initiatives. By propelling R&D activities, the government can encourage and support more companies to re- think or re-invent their business interest by announcing subsidies .
According to GAAMA, due to the lacklustre attitude of the government in timely addressing the issues, the industry is facing a lot of problems. One of the important demands of the industry is to declare ayurveda as a green and clean industry, the lack of which has created serious problems for the industry.
Though the government of India had been mulling to recognise ISM as a green industry, they have not taken any firm action on this , creating a lot of confusion in the sector. Taking advantage of this situation , government officials often arm twist the law to harass the industry, GAAMA points out.