Union government has approved a proposal to put forth by the Karnataka government to start a dedicated Ayurveda University in the state. The state government is now in the process of identifying the required land for the location of the University which will be set up at a cost of Rs.10 crore. This is one of the first announcements from the state government among the several expected in the fiscal which would include encouraging cultivation, protection of sustainable medicinal plants and export opportunities.

Presently the Rajiv Gandhi University for Health Sciences which has a department for Ayurveda is taking care of the requirements of the college admission and syllabus approvals. "This will be the first time that an entire university would be dedicated to Ayurveda," stated SA Ramadass, Karnataka minister for medical education.

In fact, going by the increased level of activities in the industry and in the colleges which includes the Union government driven 'Cluster Scheme' project, known as the Ayurpark Health Care Ltd in Karnataka, the move for the University was a good decision. An exclusive university for Ayurveda will give the much needed boost to the Indian System of Medicine, said JSD Pani, president, Karnataka Indian Medicine Manufacturers Association.

The state government has allocated Rs.5 crore in the 2010-11 budget for the development of Ayurveda colleges and hospitals for advanced level treatment. In Ayurveda, there are 76 hospitals and 76 dispensaries with a bed strength of 1,162. For Unani care, there are 51 dispensaries and 11 hospitals with a bed strength of 202.

In homoeopathy, there are 43 dispensaries and 10 hospitals with a bed strength of 135 and Naturopathy has 5 dispensaries and 6 hospitals with a bed strength of 41. Totally there are 639 dispensaries in the Ayush sector with 103 hospitals and 1,545 beds.

The state government has also slated a number of Ayurveda dispensaries within the Ayurveda colleges in Bangalore, Mysore and Bellary which already have hospitals. Currently, Karnataka has 43 Ayurveda colleges out of which three are government colleges, and 5 are aided. There are four Unani colleges (one government and three unaided). Out of the 10 homoeopathy colleges, one is government owned and nine are unaided. Of the four naturopathy institutes, one is government and other remaining are unaided. The Government has also proposed to develop three Ayurveda colleges as part of its efforts to promote Ayurveda. It has also proposed to set up a research centre in the Government College of Ayurvedic Medicine in Mysore to mark its centenary.

Currently, there are 9,385 Ayush units in the country and over 90 per cent are in the small scale segment. Of these, 175 Ayurveda manufacturers are in Karnataka.