The Institute of Trans-disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (IHST) is now scouting for investors to raise Rs.300 crore for its next phase of growth. The Institute which was inaugurated on January 19, 2014, will offer doctorate and post-doctorate programmes to begin with before it introduces undergraduate, graduate and post graduate courses in herbal sciences and technology. The doctorate programmes will also be opened to international students.

Coming under the umbrella of the Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), the leading NGO in the country to promote local health traditions and drug research, IHST would focus on advanced research. The objective of the IHST is to ensure an integrative approach of healthcare where traditional science and modern medicine could be combined.

Since the FRLHT inception, funding was sourced from United Nations, Ford Foundation and Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the Denmark Government's bilateral funding arm for developing countries. The Foundation also went on to set up the Indian Institute of Ayurveda Integrated Medicine (IIAIM) which received assistance to the tune of Rs.30 crore from the Tata Trust.

At the inaugural of the IHST, Dr Sam Pitroda, advisor to Prime Minister and Board member of IHST, said that it was looking for Rs.300 crore which was required for its next phase of growth. Therefore we are looking at any source for this investment.

The Institute would also offer diploma courses and integrative medicine workshops for medical fraternity of any specialty. Apart from this, it will provide short-term sessions on herbal medicine to house-wives and semi-urban and urban population as we want them to know and experience the science of Ayurveda. Further, there are plans on the cards to create a herbal handbook for every taluk, with special focus on local herbs, said Darshan Shankar, vice chancellor, IHST.

Currently, there are several international students at its campus to comprehend the advantages of integrative medicine and the benefits of plant medicine, he added.

“There is need to integrate medicine and focus on prevention of diseases. In fact IHST is the institute of the 21st century. We need to create similar models which is seen to the answer to control lifestyle diseases and related disorders,” said Dr Pitroda.

It is also looking for industry partnership. Bengaluru has the right environment for research with the presence of leading science institutes, biotech-pharma and information technology companies which could leverage the existing technology, said Dr Pitroda.

Mandating the need for such an Institute, IHST’s vice chancellor said that modernization in traditional medicine has now happened despite extensive knowledge of evidence-based therapies. There is need to revalidate science with Sanskrit slokas and integrate it with modern biology. Only this would expand the frontiers of knowledge.

“Nature of herbal knowledge is holistic but a part of it is only science based, There is need to combine this and the IHST is seen as a platform to generate and disseminate knowledge. We need to look at bridging shastras with science in a systematic way to develop adorable and scalable solutions,” said IHST vice chancellor.