Kerala will host a mega the Global Ayurveda Festival, packed with buyer-seller meet, health expo, expert clinics, international seminar and students meet, from February 9 to 14, 2012 at Thiruvananthapuram.

The event, being organised by the Centre for Innovation in Science and Social Action (CISSA) in association with the Ayurveda Department of the State Government, Ayurveda Medical Association of India (AMAI) and Ayurvedic Medicine Manufacturers Organisation of India (AMMOI), aims at promoting the sector in the country and abroad.

The six-day festival is also an attempt to regain the old glory of Ayurveda in Kerala which is the cradle of this branch of medicine. The grand exhibition will also have medicinal plants, herbal products, food fete, apart from deliberations on regulatory and industry aspects, said CISSA general secretary Dr C Suresh Kumar in a statement.

Different universities, medical colleges and research organisations in the sector will put up programmes to ramp up the public awareness about this branch of medicine. AYUSH(Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, and Homoeopathy) clinics, consultation by traditional practitioners, stalls of resorts that are into Ayurveda medical tourism, Ayurveda food courts along with diet counselling, and display of medicinal plants for herbal formulations will be among other attractions, he added.

The preparations for the event were kicked off on Thursday with Kerala Health Minister Adoor Prakash releasing the brochure. The Minister, while urging the Ayurveda manufacturers not to be led by profit motives, disclosed that the State government was taking pro-active steps including across-the-table negotiations with the pharma companies and market intervention through government agencies to control the prices of essential drugs in the State.