The International Maharishi AyurVeda Foundation (IMAF) is collaborating with the Ayush ministry and Indian embassies to combat export challenges and ensure easy access to Indian herbal products globally. This will be further strengthened with India-Germany Intergovernmental Consultations (IGC) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Hamburg, Germany for the G-20 Summit, slated between July 7-8, 2017.

At the recently concluded 2nd International Ayurveda Congress hosted by IMAF in London and organised jointly by All India Ayurvedic Congress (AIAC), and the International Academy of Ayurveda (IAA) highlighted the expansion of Ayurveda and the extension of required support to overcome challenges in the areas of export and availability of herbal preparations.

The Foundation will collaborate with Ministry of Ayush and Indian Embassies to identify the hurdles in spreading Ayurveda outside India, including issues encountered in international marketing. It is also encouraging health insurance companies to cover Ayurveda treatments and supporting research across every country.

The world is looking to new models of healthcare for wellbeing, disease prevention and disease-care. Indian systems of medicine offer the most comprehensive and promising model, said Dr. Madan Thangavelu, trustee, Research Council for Complementary Medicine Cambridge, UK.

Now the Foundation has highlighted the contribution of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Ayurveda which has gained worldwide recognition as an effective, holistic and prevention-oriented approach, he added.

According to Pharmexcil, current Indian herbal product exports are approximately US$ 250 million. The leading importers are UAE, Nepal, Russia, USA, Europe and Ghana.

In order to spur the growth of the sector, the Foundation along with all Ayurveda colleges and universities in India and globally will introduce them to this system of medicine. This will be supplemented with Maharishi’s total knowledge of ayurveda, including transcendental meditation, pulse diagnosis, prevention-oriented healthcare, collective health measures including group practice of Maharishi’s Technologies of Consciousness and strategies to improve environmental influences through other Vedic disciplines, such as Sthapatya Veda, Jyotish and Yagya, to achieve integrative healthcare and to implement this approach in the current syllabus.

The Foundation along with AIAC and AIAC will also endorse the Ministry of Ayush’s initiative to establish an academic chair in every university of each country. The chair will serve as a focal point for research on Ayurveda, course development, teaching, and practice.

It will also recommend to the Ministry of Ayush to form an International Federation of Ayurveda and Yoga to propagate the practice of these traditional systems globally with a co-ordinating office in New Delhi.

It has also recommended for an international accreditation board for Ayurveda to ensure that the standards of this science and its many subsidiary disciplines are established in education and research.

The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Dhanvantari Award would be instituted to enable creation of a disease-free society. Two such awards will be given at the Congress henceforth for an Indian and one from abroad. In order to build on the success of the first and second conferences, it decided to hold the third congress in Brazil on April 18, 2018 for five days after which Dubai would host in 2019, in recognition of the development of integrative healthcare.