Karnataka state has launched its first Cluster project for Ayush sector with the initiative of Karnataka Indian Medicine Manufacturers Association last week. The project is part of the ambitious scheme of Department of Ayush announced in 2007 to facilitate establishment and development of Clusters of manufacturing units in Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy drugs in the country during 11th Plan period. The Department of Ayush has selected Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd as the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to support and monitor the Rs 17 crore Cluster project in the state. As per this public-private partnership scheme, these Clusters will have necessary infrastructure to support the production and to fill critical gaps in the sector in standardization, quality assurance and control, marketing, infrastructure and capacity building. These clusters will also facilitate the user units in meeting emerging global and national compliances related to quality, safety and standards and thereby improve the national and global market share of Indian Ayush Industry. Apart from the Karnataka project, clusters in Thrissur, Nasik, Pune and Amritsar have also been approved by the Department of Ayush.

The Department has realized the role Ayush drugs can play in tackling community health problems especially in rural areas resulting from nutritional deficiencies, epidemics and vector-borne diseases. And to have effective intervention in public health, the Department has to transform the tiny and small units in the Ayush sector into a quality conscious and technology driven segment. The cluster scheme is the first serious attempt by the Central government to uplift this disorganized sector into a modern industrial sector. The Centre has already allocated Rs 6,000 crore to the Ayush sector during the 11th Plan as against an allocation of just Rs 1,000 crore during the X Plan. Currently, there are 9,385 Ayush units in the country and over 90 per cent of them are in small and tiny sectors. It is the absence of a minimum quality standard for its products and lack of a modern scientific approach to manufacturing practices that kept this sector backward for all these years. Efforts on the part of the Department to introduce printing of expiry dates on Ayush medicines and move by the Quality of Council of India to introduce an Ayush Mark on all Ayush drug packs are two other laudable initiatives. The Ayush Mark will ensure a stamp of quality and give the consumer the confidence that the Ayush drug has cleared the safety and quality of content standards. Now, for maintaining a desired quality standard of Ayush products, there is an urgent need to lay down certain minimum standards for the basic raw materials as most of them are procured from forests and tribal areas. For this and making the whole Cluster scheme a success, active support of the state governments and industry associations, as the state of Karnataka has done, is necessary.