How does the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034 create opportunities for India's Ayush sector?

The 78th World Health Assembly adopted the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034 in 2025. It is a ten-year roadmap built on four objectives: evidence, safety and regulation, health-system integration and cross-sectoral value [1]. India's Ayush sector is already building capacity under each objective, so the strategy can help turn India's heritage into healthcare that the world accepts.

Opportunities under the four objectives

• Evidence base: Traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM) gets less than 1% of global health research funding [2]. India's five Ayush research councils published 653 papers in FY 2025–26, and CCRYN has 22 units [3]. This places India to lead research under WHO's TCIM research agenda.
• Safety and regulation: NIN Pune's Institutional Ethics Committee is registered with the Department of Health Research [3]. WHO norms give India a benchmark for matching Ayush drug standards to international norms and for adverse-event reporting, as the Parliamentary Standing Committee recommended [4].
• Health-system integration: The strategy supports bringing TCIM into national health systems [1]. India can scale up low-cost lifestyle tools (diet, yoga, stress management) against obesity and NCDs. It can use its 200-bed Yoga & Naturopathy hospitals at Jhajjar and Nagamangala [3] and Ayush Health and Wellness Centres to do this.
• Cross-sectoral value and soft power: Global legitimacy helps Ayush exports and wellness tourism. It also supports recognition of Ayush by foreign governments and private insurance cover. The Committee urged both steps, citing China and South Korea [4].

Gaps India must close to use these opportunities

• A paper count does not prove that treatments work. Specific therapies need randomised controlled trials. WHO warns that research is often not aligned with what health systems need [2].
• Under the National Ayush Mission, only 65% of Ayush Health and Wellness Centres had been set up, and over 69% of integrated hospitals were still under construction [4].
• The government flagged 804 misleading Ayush advertisements between 2015 and 2018 [5]. This shows weak control over health claims.

The WHO strategy gives India a ready framework to turn its research, institutions and soft power into global credibility. India should publish trial-based evidence, act firmly against false claims and finish National Ayush Mission infrastructure. It can then lead the "responsible integration" of traditional and modern medicine [3], advancing universal health coverage and SDG 3.