Prevention is better than cure and what better way for prevention than traditional medicines like ayurveda and unani products? So the government plans to promote them – using the public-private partnership (PPP) model.

Health secretary (Ayush) S. Jalaja said, “PPP projects undertaken by the Ayush department are running successfully in Patna and Rajasthan. In Patna, we have tied up with a private eye hospital and on the opening day itself people came in large numbers for eye check-up.”

The Ayush department started this initiative to promote traditional Indian medicine through PPP in September 2009.

About 10 such projects are already in the pipeline. Cultivating medicinal plants, manufacturing and selling herbal products, building hospitals and wellness centres – all are considered under the PPP model.

“The land for the project is given by the state government, Rs 80 lakh is given by the central government for setting up infrastructure and for construction of the building, and we want the private players to come forward and offer services,” said S K Panda, joint secretary, Ayush department.

“Another model which we are considering is in Andhra Pradesh where cows are reared in such a way that the milk they produce has medicinal value,” added Jalaja.

Cultivating quality herbal plants remains a challenge and there is no rule for standardisation of the herbal products sold in the market. To check this, Jalaja said that the Ayush department has tied up with the Quality Council of India (QCI), a joint initiative of the government of India and the Indian industry. The QCI now gives quality assurance for colleges, hospitals, labs and drugs.

“A group of technical experts go and give the quality assurance tag. This adds more credibility to the company and to the products or services they are offering,” she said.