Research Institute of Health Science & Management (RIHS&M), affiliated to the Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune, is offering an MBA course in Ayurveda pharmacy. This is the first time in the country a management institute is offering an MBA course in Ayurveda pharmacy. The two-year course is comprehensively designed to familiarize the students of Ayurveda with the basics in traditional medicine, pharmacy and management.

The key objective of the course is to provide trained manpower in the areas of management for the Ayurveda sector, which at the moment is grossly inadequate. MBA is a popular and an emerging career option in this sector. Going by the developments in Ayurveda sector, there are booming employment opportunities in the country, Dr Rajendra Huparikar, deputy director, Research Institute of Health Sciences & Management told Pharmabiz.

Until now, scope of education in the field of Ayurveda after BAMS was limited. Other than MD or MS in Ayurveda, no other course was available to the graduates to go ahead in the educational arena or chart a promising career. The MBA programme will address this requirement of students of Ayurveda, he added.

A total of 11 candidates joined the course in 2006. To begin with, the institute considered the Ayurveda graduates (BAMS) as eligible candidates. But the content of the MBA programme will also benefit pharmacy graduates. From this coming academic year which begins in June, the institute is keen to attract the pharmacy graduates, he informed.

The Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune, has fixed the fee for the two-year course at Rs 1,40,000.

The first batch of the MBA Ayurveda graduates will pass out in April this year. The college went in for a campus selection early this year and five leading Ayurveda companies have evinced interest in the candidates.

The candidates will be selected as management trainees for a year-long project after which they will be inducted suitably in the marketing, quality control and production departments which demand considerable management expertise.

A typical two-year course with four semesters focuses not only on Ayurveda medicine, its preparatory methods, production operations and materials management but also addresses the regulatory issues, pharmacology, intellectual property rights, patent business and management of clinical research but gives prime importance to computer applications, accounting financial practices, human resources management along with considerable focus on communication skills in business, organizational behaviour and English.

Current employment scenario calls for good communication, interpersonal skills, confidence and ambitions as well as individual with cognitive abilities. The MBA programme at RIHS&M can mould the candidate for the jobs of the future, added Dr Huparikar.