CCRAS INternational Cooperation

International Activities

International Cooperation Section

The popularity of Ayurveda is increasing day by day resulting in a demand worldwide. There is a growing interest for authentic information of Ayurveda, therefore, CCRAS under the Ministry of Ayush has signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) and Letter of Intent (LoI) with various Universities/Institutions in foreign countries for Research and Development, deputation of Ayurveda experts to take up teaching, clinical work and for research activities as per institutional requirement to promote and propagate Ayurveda in that country. In addition, the Council is promoting evidence-based research of Ayurvedic Medicines in cooperation with foreign institutions under MoUs. Experts from the Council are also participating in international conferences, workshops, exhibitions, trade fairs etc. for promotion of Ayurveda as a system of Medicine.

Keeping in view, a dedicated International Cooperation Section (IC-Section) had setup at CCRAS Hqrs. New Delhi on 9thAugust, 2016 with following Terms of Reference (ToRs) :
i. Processing of all the issues related to International Cooperation.
ii. Coordination of International Cooperation issues such as Collaborative Studies,
Deputations, MoU’s, Ayurveda Academic Chairs, Exhibition, Trainings, Fairs,Supply of publication material etc.
iii. Maintaining of tour reports of Foreign visits of CCRAS officials.
iv. Deputation of experts to foreign countries Sharing of Scientific Publication (Hard & soft copy) to MoU’s partnersand Ayush Information Cell abroad
v. Support to Ministry of Ayush in organization of International Meetings, Conferences,Summit etc.

As of now, Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) under the Ministry of Ayush has signed 20 MoU / LoI with different countries / foreign University/Institutions for Research & Development in the field of Indian Traditional System of Medicine (Ayurveda) and for the establishment of Ayurveda Academic Chair.

Details of MoU’s/LoI’s :

Research & Development in Ayurveda – MoU’s (07)

RSAM Romania, Germany (Charite University & Lutheran Hospital), NCNPR USA, TASMC Isreal, Alberta Univ Canada, PHFI – WHO

Academic Chair in Ayurveda – MoU’s (11)

Trinidad &Tobago, Hungary, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia, Slovenia, Latvia, Argentina, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico

Cooperation in the field of Ayurveda and Cancer Research – LoI (1)

OCCAM, NIH, NCI, USA

Infrastructure at Abroad – MoU (1)

A MoU had signed with University of Debrecen, Hungary for establishment of European Institute of Ayurvedic Sciences (EIAS)

International Cooperation – Achievements
(Collaborative Research Projects- Completed and Published)

I. A clinical research project entitled “Effectiveness and safety of Ayurveda as a whole treatment system in Osteoarthritis of the knee-A Multicentre, Randomized controlled clinical trial based on Traditional Ayurveda Diagnosis” was undertaken in collaboration with Charite University Medical Centre, Germany.

Research papers published out of this project are as under :

i. Claudia M Witt, Andreas Michalsen, Stephanie Roll, Antonio Morandi, Shivnarain Gupta, Mark Rosenberg, Ludwig Kronpab. Elmar Stapelfeldt, Syed Hissar, Maththias Muller, Christian Kessler “Comparative effectiveness of a complex Ayurvedic treatment and conventional standard care in osteoarthritis of the knee – study protocol for a randomized controlled trial” BioMed Central Trials 2013, 14:149 (copy enclosed)

ii. Kessler CS, Dhiman KS, Kumar A, Ostermann T, Gupta S, Morandi A, Mittwede M, Stapelfeldt E, Spoo M, Icke K, Michalsen A, Witt CM. Effectiveness of an Ayurveda treatment approach in knee osteoarthritis-a randomized controlled trial Osteoarthritis and cartilage 2018 May;26(5):620-630
iii. Christian S. Kessler etal. Reliability of Ayurvedic Diagnosis for Knee Osteoarthritis Patients: A Nested Diagnostic Study Within a Randomized Controlled Trial The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine Volume 25, Number 9, 2019, pp. 910–919

II. CCRAS -WHO- Safdarjung Hospital research project :

“Approaches for integrating Ayurveda with Conventional System in a Multispecialty Hospital for Management of Osteoarthritis (Knee)” study was funded by WHO India Country office, New Delhi and has been completed and published in JRAS ,January March,2017;1(1);40-47 .

International Cooperation – Achievements
(Ayurveda Academic Chairs in foreign Universities/Institutions)

(Major International Conferences, Meetings and Workshops organised )
i. CCRAS has extended logistic support to Ministry of Ayush for organizing International Conference on Standardization of Diagnosis and Terminologies in Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha System of Medicine (ICoSDiTAUS) on 25-26 February,2020 at New Delhi.

ii. CCRAS has extended logistic support to Ministry of Ayush for organizing Workshop on Scope & Application of Artificial Intelligence in Traditional Medicine at IIC, New Delhi during 13-14, December, 2022.

iii. CCRAS has extended logistic support to Ministry of Ayush for organizing of Briefing meeting of Ambassadors of SCO Member States, Observer Countries and Dialogue Partner Countries on 18th January, 2023 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

iv. CCRAS has extended logistic support to Ministry of Ayush for organizing Meeting of Experts and Practitioners of Traditional Medicine of SCO on 3rd February, 2023 (Virtual)

v. CCRAS has extended logistic support to Ministry of Ayush for organizing 1st Expert Working Group Meeting on Traditional Medicine of SCO at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi during 9-10 February,2023.

vi. CCRAS has extended logistic support to Ministry of Ayush for organizing SCO B2B Conference and Expo on Traditional Medicine in Guwahati during 2-5 March, 2023, which was a grand success.

S. No.	Name of the Officials	Dates/ Duration	Country visited	Purpose
1.	Dr. Shobhit Kumar R.O. (Ay.)	June 7, 2022	Uzbekistan	To participate in Forum of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Traditional Medicine on the topic “Integration of traditional (folk) medicine into modern healthcare systems”.
2.	Dr. Chinmay Rath R.O. (Botany)	24^th -28^th June, 2022	Netherlands	To participate in International Horticulture Exhibition (Floriade 2022) at Almere, Netherlands.
3.	Dr. Saketh Ram Thrigulla, R.O( Ay.)	19^th -22^nd Sept, 2022	Finland	To participate in the ITU/WHO Focus Group on Artificial Intelligence for Health ( FG- AI4H) Meeting and workshop organized by ITU,WHO and the University of Helsinki.
4.	Dr. Saketh Ram Thrigulla, R.O( Ay.) Dr. N. Srikanth DDG and Dr. C Ashwin RO (Ay.)	17^th to 21^st Oct, 2022. 7^th Nov,2022	Switzerland Brazil	To participate in WHO Family of International Classifications Network Annual meeting at Geneva. To attend first Joint Working Group meeting between Brazil and India on cooperation in the areas of traditional medicine and Homeopathy under Country level MoU signed in February, 2020 between the Ministry of Ayush, India and Ministry of Health, Brazil.
5	Dr. Sumeet Goel R.O. ( Ay.)	16^th -18^th Nov, 2022.	Malaysia	To attend the WHO-ICD 11 Traditional Medicine Chapter Module 2 Alpha draft review meeting.
6	Dr. N. Srikanth DDG, Dr. V K Lavaniya R. O. (Ay.), Dr. Rakesh Naryanam R.O.(Ay.) and Dr. Saketh Ram Thrigulla, R.O(Ay.)	16^th -18^th Nov, 2022.	Malaysia	To attend the WHO-ICD 11 Traditional Medicine Chapter Module 2 Alpha draft review meeting as country focal point.
7	Dr. Deepak Londhe R.O. ( Ay.) and Dr. Raman Kaushik R.O. ( Ay.)	18^th to 21^st Nov, 2022.	Mongolia	To attend the India Show at Misheel Expo Center organized by Misheel Expo Mongolia, India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) and Embassy of India in Mongolia. Ayush medications including Ayush Care Kit, AYUSH-64, and IEC materials for the Ayush system of medicines were displayed during the event.
8	Prof. (Vaidya) Rabinarayan Acharya, DG, CCRAS	21^st March, 2023	Ethiopia	To participate in India- Ethiopia workshop on Traditional Medicine organized by GDC, RIS, New Delhi.
9	Dr. Saketh Ram Thrigulla, R.O.(Ay.)	21^st to 24^th March, 2023.	USA	To participated in ITU/WHO Focus Group on Artificial Intelligence for Health