To spruce up interest in Ayurveda through academics, Gujarat Ayurvedic Aushadh Manufacturers Association (GAAMA) has proposed the Gujarat government to take up initiatives towards adopting foreign students exchange programme in the Gujarat Ayurved University (GAU), Jamnagar. This demand comes in the wake of growing interest among the foreign nationals in understanding, studying and doing research in the stream of Ayurveda by coming in to India for the same.

GAAMA feels that the government should tap this opportunity to generate interest in Ayurveda sector, by providing better platform to the interested students by way of government affiliated students exchange programme. This they believe will not only help in attracting more students to India, but will also play a greater role in placing the Indian ayurvedic students to foreign university to get shared experience on ayurvedic education.

Prabodh Shah, president, GAMMA pointed out, “With technological advancement and changing market dynamics the world is fast turning into one global village, thus it is imperative that we are prepared to meet the global demands as well. Today students from abroad come and get the additional knowledge on our culture and traditional way by being part of our educational system, whereas, students from India seldom go to foreign university for further eduction in Ayurveda.”

This he fears, is leading to a lot of disparity among Indian students in understanding the global needs and market requirements to shape up the future of Ayuveda industry. “Having a dedicated exchange programme will help us in placing our students in other universities so that they will also able to gain additional knowledge on Ayurveda, which is considered as one of the best treatment options available today due to its ability to provide result oriented therapy without any side-effects,” Shah stressed.

The association pointed out that in the past few years there have been a positive trend indicating a sojourn of foreign nationals coming to GAU to study Ayurveda on their own. Shah informed that today there are around 60 students coming from countries like Japan, Germany, Holland and other countries from the European Union (EU) coming to India to learn pancha karma, shalya shalakya, stri roga, prasuti tantra, kaumarbhritya, kayachikitsa, etc.

He believes that such exchange programme with other foreign universities will not only help in generating more interest in Ayurveda,but will also help in exposing the Indian students to a greater challenges. GAU is a statutory university linked to ministry of health and family welfare both at state and centre and is one of its kind both at national and international level exclusively devoted to ayurvedic studies and research.