Aimed at scaling up entrepreneurship in existing businesses and encouraging start-ups in Ayurveda, CII-Kerala is organising a three-day global Ayurveda summit in Kochi from November 21.

S Sajikumar, CII Kerala Chairman and MD of Dhatri Ayurveda Pvt Ltd, said that it is important for the stakeholders in Ayurveda to realise the growth potential in areas like healthcare, lifestyle, medicine manufacturing, exports and tourism.

“It is time to position India as a global Ayurveda hub since the field is witnessing a resurgence in India and the world,” he said. He said that the global Ayurvedic market is projected to grow from $3,428 million in 2015 to $9,791 million in 2022.

At present, tourism has immensely benefited from Ayurveda. On the other hand therapeutic sector in Ayurveda has been stagnant. Citing the example of Kerala, which has the largest number of active players in Ayurveda in the country, Sajikumar said the revenue from the tourism in Ayurveda is around ₹7,500 crore. However, the share of revenue from Ayurveda in therapy stands at ₹1500 crore only.

“We need to brand Ayurveda. Strengthening intellectual property rights will help. Though we have 40,000 formulations there are just 200 patents from India,” he said.

A major attraction of the global Ayurveda summit will be the Ayurstart, an Ayurveda start-up competition to attract young minds to come up with out-of-the-box ideas in this sector. “We need to integrate modern technology into Ayurveda and develop new apps,” said Ajay George Varghese, convenor of Ayurveda panel for the summit and the managing director of Bipha Drug Laboratories P Ltd. The plan is to shortlist 10 of the ideas for mentoring and incubation and funding by the industry.

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