The launch of the Ayush Mark by Prime Minister Narendra Modi marks a decisive step toward integrating traditional medicine into formal healthcare delivery systems — both in India and globally. Introduced at the closing ceremony of the WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine, the initiative, along with the My Ayush Integrated Services Portal (MAISP), reflects a policy shift from viewing Ayush as a parallel wellness stream to recognising it as a regulated, quality-assured component of healthcare.
For a country where most of the population uses some form of traditional medicine alongside allopathy, the move addresses a long-standing gap in standardisation, patient safety, and clinical confidence.
India’s Ayush ecosystem today supports:
Over 9 lakh registered practitioners
Around 12,000 licensed manufacturing units
Millions of patients accessing Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, and other traditional therapies annually
Yet, unlike modern medicine, traditional systems have often operated with uneven quality benchmarks, leading to variability in treatment outcomes and, at times, concerns around safety and credibility.
The Ayush Mark seeks to establish uniform quality, safety, and manufacturing standards, helping healthcare providers and patients distinguish certified, evidence-aligned products and services from unregulated alternatives. Healthcare experts believe this could significantly reduce risks related to contamination, incorrect formulations, and inconsistent dosages.
From a public health perspective, the Ayush Mark functions as a patient assurance mechanism. With increasing use of herbal and traditional formulations in managing chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, digestive disorders, and lifestyle diseases, consistent quality becomes critical.
India’s Ayush market, estimated at ₹1.5–1.6 lakh crore, serves a growing patient base seeking preventive and complementary care. However, adverse events linked to poor-quality products — though limited — have highlighted the need for strong pharmacovigilance and traceability.
By enforcing compliance with defined standards, the Ayush Mark is expected to:
Improve clinical reliability of traditional therapies
Support integrative care models combining Ayush and modern medicine
Enable better monitoring of outcomes and safety
Healthcare practitioners note that standardisation could also help Ayush gain wider acceptance within hospitals, wellness centres, and insurance-backed care pathways.
The My Ayush Integrated Services Portal (MAISP) adds a critical digital layer to this transformation. Designed as a single-window platform, MAISP aims to integrate practitioner registration, certification, services, and patient engagement across the Ayush ecosystem.
For healthcare delivery, this means:
Improved credential verification of practitioners
Better access to certified products and services
Potential for data-backed research and outcome tracking
With more than 9 lakh practitioners and a large informal care-seeking population, digitisation could significantly enhance care continuity, transparency, and accountability.
Globally, traditional and complementary medicine is used by an estimated 40–50% of the world’s population, and the market is projected to cross USD 600 billion by 2030. However, lack of harmonised standards has limited its integration into formal healthcare systems.
By aligning Ayush certification with WHO-linked frameworks, India is positioning its traditional medicine systems for broader inclusion in global health programmes, research collaborations, and integrative medicine models.
Healthcare experts see this as particularly relevant for low- and middle-income countries, where access to affordable, preventive, and culturally accepted healthcare solutions remains a challenge.
While implementation will be key, the Ayush Mark represents a move toward evidence-led traditional healthcare, where legacy knowledge is supported by quality assurance, digital systems, and global benchmarks.
For India’s healthcare ecosystem, the initiative underscores a broader message:
the future of healthcare lies not in choosing between traditional and modern systems, but in responsibly integrating both — with patient safety, quality, and outcomes at the core.
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