It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to our celebrations to mark the Ayurveda Day.
Ayurveda is the heritage of ancient Indian knowledge of traditional medicine system for general wellness as well as preventive and curative healthcare.
The celebration of Ayurveda Day is an occasion for us to share with the world this knowledge and wisdom of ancient India for holistic healthcare.
This year’s theme for Ayurveda Day is ‘Ayurveda for Nutrition’, which focuses on this holistic benefit.
Despite its ancient origin, Ayurveda is acquiring a modern outlook. Today, Ayurveda is bringing new insights into creating harmony between body, mind and spirit by balancing lifestyle and diet, and use of natural herbs.
Ayurveda enhances body’s natural resistance to the disease rather than directly neutralizing the disease-causing agents.
It is therefore particularly relevant for diseases whose cures are difficult or unknown. Ayurveda’s focus on strengthening the natural immune system of human body makes Ayurveda particularly relevant in facing the challenge of pandemics like COVID-19.
In fact, demand for Ayurvedic medicines and herbs have gone up during COVID-19 pandemic that shows people’s confidence in benefits of Ayurveda.
The benefits of Ayurveda and strengths of India’s traditional medicine system are today globally recognized. This is evident in World Health Organization’s recent designation of India as the host country for a new Global Centre of Traditional Medicine. There is also increasing international cooperation in Ayurvedic research.
In India, future-ready Ayurveda institutions are being established to bring Ayurveda in the frontlines of healthcare system.
With Vietnam, which has its own traditional medicine system, we have an active cooperation in this area. Our Department of AYUSH and Vietnam’s Traditional Medicine Administration are discussing cooperation framework, which includes medicinal plants and deputation of Ayurveda experts under India’s ITEC programme in Vietnam.
I hope that today’s webinar will shed new light on the similarities and connections between the traditional medicine systems of India and Vietnam and strengthen our healthcare cooperation.
On this Ayurveda Day, let us bring greater awareness of the benefits of Indian ancient traditional medicine knowledge system of Ayurveda to meet the contemporary global healthcare challenges.
I wish the webinar a great success.
Thank you.
