Ayurvedamagazine

Category: Featured Articles

  • More Donors, More Lives: India’s Organ Donation Gap Calls for Urgent Public Action

    India’s growing transplant needs have brought the country’s persistent shortage of donated organs into sharp focus, with healthcare experts calling for greater public awareness and participation in organ donation.

    Speaking at an event held on the eve of World Organ Donation Day, which falls on August 13, in New Delhi, experts from Fortis Escorts, Okhla, and the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) stressed that increasing the availability of organs from deceased donors remains a challenge in India’s transplant ecosystem.

    NOTTO Director Dr Anil Kumar said a single deceased donor could save up to eight lives through organ donation, while tissue donation could improve the quality of life of many more. He underlined the need to dispel misconceptions surrounding brain death and encourage more people to pledge their organs.

    The scale of the shortage is stark. India’s organ donation rate remains below one donor per million population, while nearly 90,000 patients were on the national transplant waiting list as of March 2026. Between 2020 and 2024, as many as 2,805 patients died while waiting for an organ transplant, according to the information shared at the event.

    Despite an increase in the number of transplants, deceased-donor organs account for only about 18 per cent of transplants in the country. Experts said this highlights the urgent need to expand the pool of deceased donors and ensure that potentially life-saving organs do not go unused.

    Dr Z S Meharwal, Chairman and Head of Adult Cardiac Surgery at Fortis Escorts Okhla, said greater awareness and participation could help reduce the number of patients who remain on waiting lists simply because a suitable organ is unavailable.

    India is progressing in transplant medicine and logistics such as the use of green corridors to transport organs rapidly between hospitals. However, experts noted that sophisticated medical infrastructure could only go so far if the supply of donated organs remains inadequate.

    The challenge, therefore, is not merely technological but also social. Addressing myths about organ donation, improving awareness about brain death and encouraging families to discuss donation could play a crucial role in closing the gap between patients waiting for transplants and organs available for transplantation.

    For thousands of patients battling serious organ failure, the difference between waiting and receiving a transplant can be the difference between life and death. Experts said greater participation in organ donation is essential if India is to turn advances in transplant medicine into more lives saved.

    Reference: PTI; ET Healthworld

  • Bridge Lab and Market to Make Ayurveda Global, Says Jadhav

    Young researchers and startups should play a leading role in transforming Ayurveda from laboratory research into commercially viable products, said Union AYUSH Minister Prataprao Jadhav, stressing that innovation must ultimately benefit society through affordable, evidence-based healthcare solutions. 

    Addressing researchers, entrepreneurs and stakeholders at the 27th Meeting of the Governing Body of the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) in New Delhi, Jadhav said India possesses a rich repository of traditional medicinal knowledge, and its true potential can only be realised when scientific discoveries are translated into market-ready products. He called upon startups to bridge the gap between research institutions and industry by developing high-quality Ayurvedic formulations backed by modern scientific validation. 

    He highlighted that the government was strengthening the innovation ecosystem through research support, startup incubation, quality certification and collaboration between academia, industry and regulatory agencies. He noted that robust scientific evidence, standardisation and clinical validation are essential for enhancing global confidence in Ayurvedic products and expanding their international footprint. 

    Jadhav said India’s growing emphasis on evidence-based Ayurveda offers significant opportunities for entrepreneurs to develop new medicines, wellness products, digital health solutions and value-added herbal products. He added that commercialising laboratory innovations would not only improve public healthcare but also generate employment and strengthen India’s position as a global leader in traditional medicine. 

    The minister also encouraged young innovators to utilise government-supported incubation centres, startup schemes and research programmes to convert promising ideas into scalable enterprises. He said closer cooperation among scientists, educational institutions and industry would accelerate the development of safe, effective and internationally competitive Ayurvedic products. 

    Reiterating the government’s commitment to promoting innovation in the AYUSH sector, Jadhav said integrating scientific research with entrepreneurship would ensure that India’s traditional knowledge creates tangible health and economic benefits while reinforcing the country’s leadership in the global wellness market.

    Reference

    PIB, PTI, ET Health

  • Ayush Ministry, IndiaAI Partner to Boost AI Use in Traditional Medicine

    The Ministry of Ayush has signed a
    Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the IndiaAI Mission under the Ministry
    of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on July 31 to facilitate the
    adoption of artificial intelligence across the Ayush sector.

    The partnership aims to strengthen
    AI-driven research, digital health, medicinal plant management, drug
    administration and capacity building by combining traditional knowledge systems
    with advanced AI technologies.

    As part of the agreement, the Ministry of
    Ayush will onboard AIKosh, IndiaAI’s repository for AI datasets and
    models, enabling the sharing of eligible health research artefacts, including
    datasets, metadata, AI models, toolkits and use cases. The move is expected to
    promote collaboration and support the responsible development of AI
    applications in traditional medicine.

    The collaboration will also provide the
    Ayush ecosystem access to GPU-based high-performance computing infrastructure
    under the IndiaAI initiative at subsidised rates, helping researchers scale
    AI-based healthcare innovations.

    The MoU was signed by Dr. Kavita Jain,
    Joint Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, and Sudeep Srivastava, Chief Operating
    Officer of the IndiaAI Mission and Joint Secretary, MeitY, in the presence of
    senior officials from both ministries.

    Officials said the initiative marks a
    significant step towards creating a technology-enabled, evidence-based and
    future-ready Ayush ecosystem by integrating India’s traditional healthcare
    systems with modern AI capabilities.