Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated an Ayurveda teaching and research institute in Gujarat named 'Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (ITRA). It will offer a range of courses and forge inter-disciplinary collaborations to give a contemporary thrust to the ancient medicine system.
PM Modi inaugurated the institute via video conferencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The institute has been accorded the status of an "institute of national importance" (INI).
ITRA is situated in the Gujarat Ayurveda University Campus in Jamnagar city and was created through an Act of Parliament recently. It was formed by merging a cluster of four Ayurveda institutes at the university campus. These four institutes were – the Institute for Post Graduate Teaching and Research in Ayurveda, Shree Gulab Kunverba Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya, Institute of Ayurvedic Pharmaceutical Sciences and Maharshi Patanjali Institute for Yoga Naturopathy Education and Research.
The Parliament had passed a Bill for creation of ITRA in September.
According to a press release by the PIB, ITRA is the first institute to enjoy this status in the AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) sector.
"ITRA will be the first institution with INI status in the AYUSH sector, and this will enable the institution to be independent and innovative in the matter of deciding course content and pedagogy," said the release.
"The decision comes at a time when global interest in health solutions based on traditional wisdom is at an unprecedentedly high level and ITRA is poised to take Ayurveda education to new vistas," it added.
Furthermore, the release stated that ITRA will also have autonomy to upgrade standards of Ayurveda education.
