Maharashtra Ayurved Center Pvt Ltd (MAC) based at Kolewadi, Pune will shortly start fellowship courses from September this year at the MAC Pune Ayush cluster to enhance skill set of graduates in aurvedic medicine and surgery and pharmacy.

MAC Pune which has recently received Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) recognition for running fellowship courses will also also encourage entrepreneurship in Ayurveda industry. MAC Pune cluster, funded by the Ayush ministry, houses a dedicated raw material processing centre for supply of standardised, graded, certified and processed raw materials in bulk to the ayurvedic manufacturers across the state.

The institute recognised by MUHS, Nashik will conduct industrial training courses for Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) and Bachelor in Pharmacy (B Pharm) students to increase their skill sets. It will empower students with hands on training on various latest techniques/machines in ayurvedic manufacturing. It will also offer a low down on legal and FDA licensing aspects also enabling the students to seek placements directly in the industry in various positions.

Informed Dr Sunita Belgamwar, chairperson, Maharashtra Ayurveda Centre Pvt Ltd (Ayush industry cluster sponsored by the government of India), "There is s huge requirement of such trained manpower considering the future requirement of raw material which is standardised, certified and packaged properly. The course is intended to train personnel mainly for meeting requirements of consumer sector of ayurvedic drugs. They will be acquainted with the raw material of ayurvedic drugs for identification, storage, processing, packaging and making it ready for manufacturing. They will also be trained to maintain stores of ayurvedic drugs (both raw materials and finished products) properly."

Applications are invited from eligible candidates for admission to fellowship courses for the academic year 2015-2016 namely Fellowship Course in Ayurvedic Raw Material Identification, Storage, Processing and Packaging (FCARMISPP) which is for a duration 12 months and Fellowship Course in Ayurvedic Drug Manufacturing (FCADM) which is again for a duration of 12 months. The course fees is Rs.40,000 course for the academic session of one year. Five seats are available for each course.

She further added that the increasing demand for traditional drugs globally also has led to increase in exports from the country of the raw material and finished drugs. MAC Pune cluster has given us an opportunity to develop a 360 degree horizontal model to propagate concepts and principles of Ayurved to all the stakeholders through interventions like exhibition, contract manufacturing, raw material processing and sale, quality control lab and entrepreneurship development centre.

The MAC Pune cluster is aimed at bringing about quality improvement of raw material and finished goods, reduction in the individual capital investment through contract manufacturing, reduction in the pre manufacturing time (40 per cent time saving) by virtue of bulk raw material supply, reduction in the packaging and labelling costs through a common facility centre, reduction in marketing costs by common marketing and branding (40 per cent cost saving), development of new drugs, process design and validation to compete globally, IPR protection and assistance in research and development and global exposure through common exhibitions.