Third BIMSTEC Conference on Traditional Medicine Concludes in Goa

1. At a Glance

• BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) held its Third Conference on Traditional Medicine Knowledge, Genetic Resources and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Goa, beginning 16 September 2026 [1].
• Organised by India's Ministry of Ayush, with the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), Goa as nodal institute, alongside the Second Meeting of the BIMSTEC Nodal Group on Traditional Medicine Knowledge, Genetic Resources and IPR [1].
• Relevant for UPSC as it links India's AYUSH diplomacy, regional connectivity (BIMSTEC), and IPR/traditional knowledge protection — a recurring Prelims-Mains crossover theme (cf. Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, Biodiversity Act 2002).
• Outcome: the "Goa Conclusions", identifying four cooperation areas for BIMSTEC traditional medicine collaboration [1].

2. Why in the News

• Third edition of the BIMSTEC Traditional Medicine Conference concluded in Goa in September 2026, building on the Centre of Excellence for Traditional Medicine announced by PM Modi at the 6th BIMSTEC Summit in Thailand (April 2025) [2][3].

3. Background & Evolution

• BIMSTEC groups seven member states: five from South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka) and two from South-East Asia (Myanmar, Thailand) [4].
• Traditional medicine cooperation gained momentum after PM Modi's announcement of a Centre of Excellence for Traditional Medicine during the 6th BIMSTEC Summit, Thailand, 4 April 2025 [2][3].
• India-AYUSH engagement with BIMSTEC/regional partners predates this: Department of AYUSH-MEA jointly hosted workshops on IPR and regulatory issues in traditional medicine as early as October 2011 [5].
• India has granted AYUSH scholarships to study traditional medicine (UG/PG/Doctorate) to regional partners since 2005 [5].
• The Goa conference is the third in the series, preceded by two earlier BIMSTEC conferences on the same theme, and ran concurrently with the Second Meeting of the BIMSTEC Nodal Group on Traditional Medicine Knowledge, Genetic Resources and IPR [1].

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Detail
Event	Third BIMSTEC Conference on Traditional Medicine Knowledge, Genetic Resources and IPR [1]
Venue	Goa, India
Start date	16 September 2026 [1]
Host/Nodal Ministry	Ministry of Ayush, Government of India [1]
Nodal Institute	All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), Goa [1]
Parallel event	2nd Meeting of BIMSTEC Nodal Group on Traditional Medicine Knowledge, Genetic Resources and IPR [1]
Outcome document	"Goa Conclusions" [1]
BIMSTEC members	India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand (7 states) [4]
Related announcement	Centre of Excellence for Traditional Medicine — announced at 6th BIMSTEC Summit, Thailand, April 2025 [2][3]

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Geopolitical / Strategic

• Reinforces India's "Neighbourhood First" and "Act East" convergence, since BIMSTEC bridges South Asia and South-East Asia [4].
• Positions India as regional leader in traditional medicine diplomacy, alongside its global push for AYUSH (WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre in Jamnagar).

Legal / Governance

• Discussions center on IPR protection of traditional medicine knowledge and genetic resources — connects to India's Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) and Biological Diversity Act, 2002 framework, guarding against biopiracy.
• "Goa Conclusions" flagged four cooperation areas: institutional/policy cooperation; standards and trade; documentation and capacity building; implementation mechanisms [1].

Scientific / Technological

• Focus on documentation and capacity building for traditional medicine systems across BIMSTEC states, supporting standardisation and scientific validation.

Economic

• Standards and trade cooperation could support cross-border AYUSH product trade and regional traditional-medicine markets.

Administrative

• Implementation left to a dedicated BIMSTEC Nodal Group, indicating a phased, working-group-driven mechanism rather than a binding treaty.

6. Recent Developments (last 12-18 months)

• April 2025: PM Modi announces Centre of Excellence for Traditional Medicine at 6th BIMSTEC Summit, Thailand [2][3].
• September 2026: Third BIMSTEC Conference on Traditional Medicine Knowledge, Genetic Resources and IPR held in Goa, concluding with the "Goa Conclusions" [1].

7. Prelims Hooks

• BIMSTEC has seven member states — five South Asian, two South-East Asian [4].
• The Third BIMSTEC Conference on Traditional Medicine was hosted in Goa, not Delhi [1].
• Nodal Ministry for the conference: Ministry of Ayush (not Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) [1].
• Nodal institute: All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), Goa [1].
• The conference ran alongside the Second Meeting of the BIMSTEC Nodal Group on Traditional Medicine Knowledge, Genetic Resources and IPR [1].
• Outcome document titled "Goa Conclusions" [1].
• The Centre of Excellence for Traditional Medicine under BIMSTEC was announced at the 6th BIMSTEC Summit in Thailand, April 2025 [2][3].
• India has offered AYUSH scholarships to regional students since 2005 [5].
• Department of AYUSH-MEA workshops on IPR in traditional medicine date back to October 2011 [5].
• BIMSTEC connects South Asia and South-East Asia — a rare bridging regional grouping [4].

8. Why the "Goa Conclusions" Are a Promise, Not a Rule

• The document binds nobody
• The Goa Conclusions only identify four areas of cooperation [1].
• Follow-up is left to a Nodal Group of officials, not to a treaty with deadlines or penalties.

• BIMSTEC decides everything by consensus, so any one of the seven members can slow a step down [4].

• BIMSTEC's own record shows how slow this gets

• Members signed a Framework Agreement for a BIMSTEC Free Trade Area in 2004 [9].
• The Third BIMSTEC Summit told the Trade Negotiating Committee to finish the Agreement on Trade in Goods by the end of 2014 [9].
• It was still not finished in 2024 — India's Commerce Minister had to publicly ask for faster FTA negotiations [10].

• So a "standards and trade" line in the Goa Conclusions [1] sits on a track that has missed one deadline by a decade.

• What to watch instead of the outcome document

• The real test is whether the Centre of Excellence for Traditional Medicine announced in April 2025 [2][3] gets staff, a budget line and a host country fixed.
• Until then, the third conference produced text, not capacity.

9. Stopping Bad Patents Is Not the Same as Getting Paid

• TKDL is a shield, not a cash register
• The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library works as "prior art" — it proves a formulation is already old and public, so a patent office must refuse the patent.
• Since 2009, 375 patent applications have been refused, withdrawn or amended using TKDL evidence [8].

• But refusing a patent gives India and its healers no royalty and no share of profit. It only stops someone else from owning the knowledge.

• The missing piece is benefit-sharing, and it is not in India's hands alone

• WIPO members adopted a new Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge on 24 May 2024 [6].
• It makes a patent applicant disclose the country and the community that the genetic resource or traditional knowledge came from [6].
• Disclosure is what makes a benefit-sharing claim possible — you cannot ask for a share if nobody has to say where the plant or recipe came from.

• The catch: the treaty enters into force only three months after 15 countries ratify it [6]. Until then, it binds nobody.

• Why this matters for a seven-member group

• Medicinal plants and the knowledge around them cross borders — the same herb and the same use exist in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Thailand.
• If only India keeps a defensive database, a firm can simply file its patent in a member state that has no such database and no disclosure rule.

10. The Honest Objection: Soft Power Ahead of Proof

• The strongest argument against this diplomacy
• India is exporting a health system faster than the evidence for it is being built.
• WHO's own Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034, agreed by member states on 26 May 2025, puts "strengthen the evidence" as its first objective, before integration into health systems [7].

• If a country is still being asked to build the evidence base, the cooperation is running slightly ahead of the science.

• What is right about the objection

• Quality and safety of traditional medicine products remain a live worry — WHO convened member states specifically on this in 2025 [7].

• A conference on IPR protects the ownership of a formulation. It does not test whether the formulation works or is safe.

• The fair answer

• The trend is towards regulation, not away from it: 90 of 106 reporting member states had a national policy on traditional, complementary and integrative medicine in 2023, up from 25 in 1999, and 116 reported regulations for herbal medicines, up from 6 [7].
• The Goa Conclusions themselves list documentation and standards as cooperation areas [1] — which is exactly the regulatory groundwork WHO asks for.
• Use this in a Mains answer as balance, not as a rejection: the diplomacy is defensible if standards and evidence move at the same speed as promotion.

11. Four Things India Can Actually Deliver Before the Fourth Conference

• CSIR and Ministry of Ayush: sign TKDL access agreements with BIMSTEC patent offices
• India has already done this outside the region — with Brazil's INPI in 2025 [8] and with the Eurasian Patent Organization [11].
• The same agreement with the patent offices of Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and others would let their examiners see Indian prior art and refuse wrong patents at the source.

• This needs no treaty and no new money — only a signature, and the model text already exists.

• Ministry of External Affairs: push BIMSTEC members towards the WIPO 2024 treaty

• The treaty needs 15 ratifications to start working [6]. Seven BIMSTEC states ratifying together would be nearly half of that number.

• This turns a conference outcome into enforceable law in other countries' patent offices — which the Goa Conclusions by themselves cannot do.

• Ministry of Ayush: write the Centre of Excellence's mandate around WHO's four objectives

• WHO's 2025–2034 strategy sets four objectives: evidence, safety and regulation, integration into health systems, and cross-sector value [7].

• Matching the Centre's work to these lets India's regional body feed into a global standard instead of building a parallel one.

• Link the traditional-medicine track to the stalled trade track

• "Standards and trade" is one of the four Goa cooperation areas [1], but cross-border AYUSH trade still runs into the unfinished BIMSTEC FTA [9][10].
• A narrow mutual-recognition arrangement for herbal product standards is easier to close than a full FTA, and would deliver a visible result first.

12. Anchors for Answers

• Data: 375 patent applications refused, withdrawn or amended using TKDL evidence since 2009 [8]
• Data: 90 of 106 reporting WHO member states had a national traditional-medicine policy in 2023, up from 25 in 1999; 116 had herbal medicine regulations, up from 6 [7]
• Law/Treaty: WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, adopted 24 May 2024 — creates a patent disclosure-of-origin duty; needs 15 ratifications to enter into force [6]
• Report/Strategy: WHO Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034, agreed 26 May 2025 — four objectives: evidence, safety and regulation, integration, cross-sector value [7]
• Comparison: Brazil (INPI) and the Eurasian Patent Organization took TKDL access so their examiners could use Indian prior art — a model not yet extended to BIMSTEC patent offices [8][11]
• Scheme: BIMSTEC FTA Framework Agreement, 2004 — Agreement on Trade in Goods was to be concluded by end-2014 [9], still being chased in 2024 [10]; the benchmark for how fast BIMSTEC delivers

13. Mains Relevance

• GS-II: Bilateral/regional groupings and agreements involving India (BIMSTEC); India's neighbourhood diplomacy.
• GS-III: Science & technology developments, IPR issues, conservation of biodiversity/traditional knowledge.
• Possible question stems: 1. Discuss the significance of BIMSTEC as a bridge between South Asia and South-East Asia. How can cooperation on traditional medicine strengthen this grouping? 2. Examine the challenges in protecting traditional medicine knowledge and genetic resources through IPR mechanisms in a multilateral regional context. 3. Traditional medicine diplomacy is emerging as a soft-power tool for India. Discuss with reference to BIMSTEC and WHO initiatives.

14. Related Topics to Study Next

• WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre (Jamnagar, Gujarat) — India's global hub for traditional medicine, complements BIMSTEC efforts.
• Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) — India's mechanism to prevent biopiracy of traditional knowledge.
• Biological Diversity Act, 2002 — legal backbone for genetic resource protection.
• BIMSTEC Charter (2022) — institutional/legal basis of the grouping.
• 6th BIMSTEC Summit, Thailand (2025) — parent event where Centre of Excellence was announced.
• Ministry of Ayush initiatives — AYUSH exports, Ayurveda diplomacy.
• BIMSTEC Free Trade Agreement negotiations — related economic cooperation track.

15. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Confusing the nodal ministry: it is Ministry of Ayush, not Ministry of Health & Family Welfare or MEA.
• Mixing up BIMSTEC (7 members) with SAARC (8 members) — BIMSTEC excludes Pakistan, Afghanistan, Maldives.
• Assuming the Centre of Excellence for Traditional Medicine was announced in Goa — it was actually announced at the 6th BIMSTEC Summit in Thailand (2025), while Goa hosted the follow-up conference (2026).
• Misremembering venue — this event was in Goa, not New Delhi or a BIMSTEC member country capital.