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Kerala is finally waking up to the myriad possibilities of Ayurveda. The State has long established itself as home to institutions offering reliable and authentic Ayurveda through centuries. But little did it do to make use of technology and research and development in its advancement.This was a weakness that held Ayurveda back from establishing its superiority over alternative systems of medicine across the globe. This is in for a change. And leading the effort is Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra). It has set up CARe-KERALAM (Confederation for Ayurvedic Renaissance-KERALAM,) a consortium with 53 Ayurvedic product manufactures with the help of the De partment of AYUSH, Government of India.

“The formation of CARe-KERALAM has its seeds in a study on Ayurvedic segment in 2003,” said Mr S Ramnath, Managing Director, Kinfra. “The study revealed that of the total turnover of Rs 4000 crore by the Indian Ayurvedic industry as a whole, Kerala’s contribution accounts to only Rs 200 crore.” The State, known worldwide for its authentic practice of Ayurveda, has a lot of scope if it introduced modern management practices, and hence the project, Mr Ramnath said.

The main objectives of the project, being set up on a fiveacre land at KINFRA Park, Koratty in Thrissur district, are:
• To upgrade the process technology of Ayurvedic drugs.
• To develop an R&D Centre.
• To promote exports.
• To develop a Centre for Excellence for Research.
• To establish a Kerala brand of Ayurvedic products.
• To train manufactures on the importance of safety, quality and efficacy in medicinal plants.
• To protect Ayurveda from adulteration and lowering of standards.
• To provide plantation facilities to farmers.
The first phase of the project, which includes facilities for raw material storage and quality control lab, is expected to go on stream by August this year, Dr K Anil Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, CARe-KERALAM, said.

CARe-KERALAM seeks to achieve these objectives with the help of a number of imaginatively conceived tools.
They include:

Analytical lab: The analytical lab in CARe KERALAM For the health of Ayurveda Kinfra, the Kerala government’s arm for creating industrial infrastructure, sets up CARe-KERALAM for the renaissance of Ayurveda. 19 with all the state-of-the-art analytical testing, method development, and contract research will provide reliable, dependable, economical and timely analytical data for the companies. This will be a full-fledged laboratory, well equipped with some of the latest equipment.

Toxicology Study Centre: Lack of information on adverse drug reaction of the herbal preparations makes it difficult to compare their benefit-risk profile. It also comes in the way of integrating the traditional medicine with the modern medicine practices. This requires clinical validation by conducting controlled clinical trials. The Toxicity Study Centre will conduct studies on the side effects of herbal medicines considering the interaction with other herbs and modern drugs. The risk-benefit ratio of the herbal drugs will also be examined in the centre. For the purpose of conducting Toxicity studies, an ‘Animal House’ is also proposed in the park.

Process Validation Lab: Mainstream medical science has not yet accepted Ayurveda as a scientific method of treatment. The Process Validation Lab will provide laboratory facilities for R&D to small and medium enterprises, thus contributing to the growth of innovation and the continuous regeneration of the Ayurveda industry. These facilities would be oriented towards working in the areas of scaling up of activities of various processes developed through process validation in the proposed Analytical Lab.

Raw Material Store & Mini Lab: All the basic raw materials needed for the production of Ayurvedic drugs in the consortium will be procured and supplied by CARe Keralam so as to prevent the exploitation of small and medium scale manufactures by the middlemen. For this a raw material store with an area of 48420 sq.ft is being built in which around 500 items can be stored at a time. The Mini Lab will test quality of raw materials brought by the consortium.

IT & Marketing Infrastructure:The loss of many valuable documents, including manuscripts, have adversely affected the growth of Ayurveda. Plants used for long life and good health are eradicated. Many renowned families of specialised Vaidyas could not stand to run their traditions. The IT & Marketing Infrastructure will provide the database on the long and lively history of Ayurveda. It will introduce the origin, development, and application of traditional Indian Ayurveda and its role in the world history of medicine. The Marketing infrastructure division will collect, preserve and exhibit the traditional medical heritage of India’s Ayurveda in history and will introduce the origin, development, and application of traditional Indian Ayurveda and its role in the world history of medicine. The main objective behind setting up this IT & Marketing Infrastructure is to extend the public’s knowledge of health by giving detailed information on herbs, formulas and ingredients of the total Ayurvedic health system.

Common Facility Center for Production & Packaging:Currently India’s share in the Ayurveda market is only 5 per cent and there exists immense scope for expanding its share in the world market from the present level of Rs 4000 crore. The Common Facility Centre will contain sophisticated equipment to carry out testing and certification, measurement, quality and safety certification and certain key processes, to produce high quality products to meet international standards for hygiene, product specification and quality. “The project will be a milestone in the development of Ayurveda,” says Mr Ramnath. “The project will bring scientific tools in every stage of medicine manufacturing: research and development, raw material collection, production, quality control, packaging, branding and marketing. This will help Ayurveda gain accessibility in more countries.”

To grow medicinal herbs near Airport

CARe-KERALAM has an unusual partner in its efforts to ensure quality raw material for the Ayurveda industry: the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL). The company which runs the country’s first private airport will grow medicinal plants on the vacant land adjacent to the airport in association with CARe-KERALAM. CIAL has already handed about 140 acres of land to CARe-KERALAM for the cultivation of medicinal plants which do not grow more than five feet in height. “The area will be cultivated in phases,” said CARe-KERALAM CEO Dr K Anil Kumar. “About 45 acres will be taken up for cultivation in the first phase,” he said.

Creating the base

Mandated to create infrastructure for Kerala’s industrial development, Kinfra, for the last 17 years, has worked towards meeting its objective. The experiment was unique: to acquire land, mainly at relatively backward areas, create basic industrial infrastructure such as developed land/building, power, water, telecommunication and banking so that entrepreneurs would be spared of the initial bottlenecks. That Kinfra parks have single window clearance system for permits and licenses were an added attraction for investors. Kinfra today run 20 parks with world class infrastructure facilities across Kerala. While some are theme parks such as the Film and Video Park at Thiruvanthapuram, textile in at Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur and food processing park at Kakkanchery, the others are multi-product parks.

The parks host units operating in IT, manufacturing, services and healthcare. It has two ventures—the Seafood Park at Aroor in Alappuzha district and Rubber Park at Irapuram in Ernakulam district. Kinfra has facilitated the entry of central Public sector units to Kerala in a big way.The manufacturing facility of BEML Limited, a PSU under the Defence Ministry, is fast coming up in the Palakkad park. The Railway wagon manufacturing unit is also coming on the Kinfra park in Palakkad. “Kinfra seeks to build on the resources Kerala has on offer to entrepreneurs,” said Mr Ramntah. “We have one of the best connectivity—be it air, sea, rail or road—among all Indian States. We have skilled manpower for any industry, which is unique to us. Our labour relations have so improved that the number of man-days lost is very less, and our record is better than most other States.”

Kinfra is also the nodal agency of the Government of India for food processing industry in Kerala. It is also designated as the agency of the government of Kerala for the development of a green field airport in Kannur. “With the commissioning of the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal at Kochi this year, Kerala will be uniquely placed with respects to industries which have an import/export component,” Mr Ramnath said. “We expect more entrepreneurs to make use of the unique facilities Kerala can offer. Kinfra is geared to welcome them and arrange infrastructure facilities so that Kerala realise its full potential.”

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