The Department of Ayush had announced a cluster development scheme in December 2007 to give a boost to the Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and homoeopathy units of the country. These units had not made any worthwhile progress over the years mainly on account of their inability to modernize the manufacturing facilities and poor marketing capabilities. Under the scheme, the Centre has set apart Rs 100 crore for developing Ayush clusters in different parts of the country. Each of the clusters will be provided with a maximum funding of Rs 10 crore. For developing a cluster, 25 to 30 units of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani or homoeopathy, should come together and form a company. They have to raise 40 per cent of the capital through equity or loan from the bank and the rest 60 per cent will be provided by the government with a maximum limit of Rs 10 crore. The key objective of the scheme is to provide assistance to the Ayush industry to develop basic facilities at a common place. To develop standard facilities by individual companies is not feasible for Ayush units as most of them are not financially sound. The Ayush industry can utilise this scheme for developing common technical facilities such as good quality labs, product standardisation labs, doses development labs, standardisation of drug master files, speciality packaging, new product development, etc. Certainly, the scheme should enable the ASU units to fill in critical gaps especially related to standardization, quality assurance and control, productivity, marketing, infrastructure and capacity building through a cluster based approach.

At the outset, the scheme appears to be attractive and innovative. It should have motivated the Ayush units to take advantage of the government's gesture. But that has not happened even after one year of the announcement of the scheme. The Department has received just five proposals to set up clusters so far. Obviously these units are finding it difficult to come together as per the norms laid down by the Department and they have already raised the issue with the Department. There are certain clauses in the scheme which are not very entrepreneur friendly and need modification. The Department insists that there should have at least 15 GMP manufacturing enterprises in a cluster for being eligible for funding under the Scheme and of these at least 3 to 5 units should have an annual turnover of Rs 50 lakhs and above and 5 units of Rs 20 lakhs and above to ensure the viability of the cluster. This stipulation is a bit harsh considering the present status of this sector. The clause objecting to permit part processing and packing at the common cluster facilities is another irritant in the scheme. The deemed manufacturers who rely upon loan license system and have such licenses valid for over three years should be considered part of the promoter group. Another deficiency in the scheme is exclusion of some key stakeholders such as cultivators, collectors, medicinal plant traders, ayurvedic colleges, public testing laboratories, extract manufacturers and ASU practitioners to become eligible promoters of the cluster project. By all means, these segments are integral part of the Ayush sector and their association can only strengthen the cluster project.