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Cabinet nod for setting up WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine   

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the establishment of a WHO (World Health Organisation) Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (WHO GCTM) at Jamnagar in Gujarat. An agreement was signed by the Government of India with the world body in this regard.

The WHO GCTM, to be established under the Ministry of AYUSH ( Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy), will be the first and only global outposted centre (office) for traditional medicines.

“The move will help to position AYUSH systems across the globe, provide leadership on global health matters pertaining to traditional medicine, ensure quality, safety and efficacy, accessibility and rational use of traditional medicine while developing specific capacity building and training programmes in the areas of relevance to the objectives and conduct training programmes in campus, residential, or web-based, and through partnerships with the WHO Academy and other strategic partners,’’ a government release said.

The move would help develop norms, standards, and guidelines in relevant technical areas, tools and methodologies for collecting data undertaking analytics, and assess impact.

The other decisions the Cabinet was appraised of included a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft e.V. (DFG), Germany; MoU signed by the ICMR with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Institute of Health of Department of Health and Human Services, U.S.; and the Council’s MoU with Oxford University, U.K.

The objective of the MoU with Oxford University includes capacity-building for Indian scientists and researchers, collection of data compliant with international standards and regulatory requirements, development of India towards becoming a regional hub for capacity development using its own funds and following the principles of equity and sovereignty, and building partnership in and beyond data and skill-sharing with equity and transparency.