Yagna for better health

The Arogya International Ayurveda Health Expo-2008 scheduled for August this year, aims to showcase India as the health hub of the world by promoting all Indian medical knowledge systems with special emphasis on ayurveda and its allied sciences. The expo will follow eight days of pre-convention workshops and a two day convention with six panel discussions on key topics.

The event is drawing thousands of delegates from different parts of the globe to Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India for the 'International Grand Centennial Convention (IGCC) on Ayurveda-A Globalising Tradition' along with the Health Expo-2008 from the 22nd to 24th August 2008. Both events are being organised as part of the Birth Centenary Year celebrations of Arya Vaidyan Late P V Rama Varier, the founder of The Arya Vaidya Pharmacy (Coimbatore) and other AVP group of Institutions. The pre-convention workshops are scheduled from 14th to 21st August 2008.

All efforts are under way to make the IGCC and Arogya International Ayurveda Health Expo-2008, Coimbatore a landmark event in the history of ayurveda. Students, teachers, industrialists, administrators, policy makers, activists, and others holding key positions in the field of health and human welfare will come together on a common platform to showcase the strength of India in this sector and its medical knowledge systems.

The pre-convention workshops will bring together experts and train ayurvedic physicians for orientation in speciality areas of Ayurveda. The workshops are arranged around nine themes: Ayurvedic Surgery, Netra Chikitsa Kerala Ayurveda Treatments, Pharmaceuticals, Clinical Documentation, Bioethics, Textual Tradition Yoga and Writing Researcher Paper.

The main objective of the pre-conference workshops will be to showcase the availability of expertise in speciality areas of ayurveda, to determine the scope and relevance of selected speciality areas, to give orientation to building ayurvedic physicians in these areas, to provide an opportunity to observe practical demonstrations of skills by experts and to give hands on training in selected techniques and procedures.

During the two day convention, six panel discussions on key topics will be conducted to address important issues and evolve a guideline document that could be submitted to policy and decision makers. Panel discussions on key themes in the context of globalisation of ayurveda will be conducted after the parallel sessions. The key themes of the panel discussion include Ayurvedic Pedagogy—Global Needs, Science in the context of Ayurveda for global acceptance, Ayurveda and Biotechnology, Health and Illness—Global challenges and Ayurvedic solutions, Trans-cultural perception and regulatory issues and Evolution of ayurvedic industry in the global pharma milieu.

Three panel discussions will be conducted after the parallel sessions at the end of each day. Each panel will have five panellists representing academia, regulatory boards, administrative services as well as clinical practice.