Organisers

Created in 1995 as the Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy, it was renamed as Department of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) in November 2003. The department has become a full-fledged Ministry in November 2014. The Ministry focuses on upgrading AYUSH educational standards, implementing quality control and drug standardization, improving the availability of medicinal plant material, aiding research and development and generating awareness about the efficacy of the systems, within the country and overseas. Its declared objectives are as follows:

Upgrade the educational standards in the Indian systems of medicine and in homoeopathy colleges in the country. Strengthen existing research institutions and ensure a time-bound research programme on identified diseases for which these systems have an effective treatment. Draw up schemes for promotion, cultivation and regeneration of medicinal plants used in these systems. Evolve pharmacopoeial standards for Indian systems of medicine and homoeopathic drugs.

Founded in 2011, the World Ayurveda Foundation (WAF) is an initiative by Vijnana Bharati aimed at global propagation of Ayurveda. As part of a larger intellectual movement under the aegis of the Swadeshi Science Movement undertaken by Vijnana Bharati, WAF is a platform that would take Ayurveda to the world for all the benefits mankind can draw from traditional health sciences.

The objectives of WAF reflect global scope. Propagation and encouragement of all activities – scientific and Ayurveda-related – are the core principles. Support to research, health-care programmes through camps, clinics and sanatoriums, documentation, organization of study groups, seminars, exhibitions and knowledge initiatives to popularize Ayurveda in the far corners of the world are the broad latitudes of focus at WAF. Ayurveda as a sector requires the kind of stewardship and voice that genuinely bring out the ethos of Ayurveda in matters that govern policy and planning with State and Central government administration in India and the world over. WAF is positioned to provide this much-needed leadership with its wide participation of various stakeholder groups. The impact of WAF encompasses the areas of policy, action, public health, trade, practice, science and, above all, global outreach for the benefit of society and mankind.

Vijnana Bharati or VIBHA is a national movement dedicated to the integrated development of Bharat through the intervention of science, engineering and technology. Launched in 1991 by a group of thinkers and scientists, VIBHA has, today, 29 active units and 6 overseas units. Eminent scientists, academicians, policy makers and social workers are the torch bearers of this movement.

VIBHA takes the spirit of ‘Swadeshi’ along with the ethos of our culture. It emphasizes that science and spirituality should go hand in hand. VIBHA works towards rural development, technology transfer, and social empowerment so as to bring the fruits of advancement of science and technology for the benefit of the society. It has received two national awards for popularizing science and technology: one in 2006 from Dr Manmohan Singh, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, and the other in 2007 from Mr Kapil Sibal, Hon’ble Minister for Science and Technology, Government of India. VIBHA works towards national self-reliance and a developed India. Towards this mission, VIBHA adopts, adapts, and assimilates the best from everywhere and associates with the best of universities, R&D organizations and other movements.