Rs 12 crore R&D boost to Indian medicine

Chennai: In an attempt to give fillip to Indian medicine, the st­ate government has alloc­ated Rs 12 crore towards setting up research and de­velopment centres in col­le­ges teaching Indian me­dicine.

According to a government release, chief minister J. Jayalalithaa has all­o­cated the amount tow­ards creation of research and development centres with a view to promote st­u­dents and teachers’ participation in the initiative.

The effort would help popularise Indian medici­ne across the world with the publication of related articles in the future, the release added.

Jayalalithaa also sanctioned Rs 15 crore for in­f­rastructure developm­ent of government colle­ges teaching Indian me­d­icine. The Government Siddha Medical College and Hospital in Palay­am­kottai will get Rs 1 crore, the Siddha Medical Coll­ege in Chennai will rece­ive Rs 3.52 crore, the Gove­rnment Homeopathy Me­di­cal College at Thiru­ma­ngalam in Madurai — Rs 3 crore, Yoga and Natur­opathy Medical College in Chennai — Rs 4.16 crore, Government Unani Medical College in Chen­nai — Rs 2.32 crore and Go­ve­rnment Ayruveda Med­ical College in Kottar in Kanniyakumari district Rs 1 crore.

Executive committee me­mber of Central Co­uncil of Indian Medicine Dr B. Muthukumar said there was a need to develop research and development facilities and allocation of huge sum towards this would benefit more number of students.

“This year, almost double the number of applications have been received by Indian medicine institutions compared to last year and this shows that students show enormous interest in pursuing Indi­an medicine,” he said.