In order to give a fillip to the ayurveda, sidha, unani and homoeopathy industry in the country, the department of Ayush has earmarked Rs 100 crore for developing 10 Ayush clusters in different parts of the country. The ministry has already got proposals from two centres to develop the cluster, one from Trissur in Kerala and the other from Pune in Maharashtra.

Sources in the department of Ayush said that the union government has already earmarked Rs 100 crore in the 11th Plan for the upliftment of ayurveda, sidha, unani and homoeopathy industry in the country. This scheme is a cluster specific one and should be developed by a group of industries anywhere in the country.

Under the scheme, the government is planning to develop 10 such Ayush clusters in different parts of the country. The government will provide Rs 10 crore to each of the clusters. For developing a cluster, a group of industries, say around 25-30 companies of ayurveda, siddab, unani or homoeopathy, should come together to form a company. They have to raise just 40 per cent of the capital through equity or loan from the bank. The rest 60 per cent will be provided by the government up to a maximum of Rs 10 crore.

The objective of the scheme is to provide assistance to the Ayush industry which is in a bad shape at present in the country to develop common facilities at a common place. To develop facilities by individual companies is not financially viable to the Ayush industry as the Ayush companies are not that much financially sound due to its limited reach.

The Ayush industry can utilise this scheme for developing common technical facilities such as good quality labs, blister packaging, product standardisation labs, safety studies, doses development labs, standardisation of drug master files, clinical trials, liquid packaging, speciality packaging, new product development, etc.