The expenditure for carrying out collaborative activities will be met from the allocated budget under the existing plan schemes of AYUSH Ministry. (Representational image)

Government today gave its approval to a pact between the AYUSH Ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the field of traditional medicine, a move aimed at improving acceptability and branding AYUSH systems internationally.A meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the pact, which will also help in long-term collaboration with WHO in facilitating awareness about AYUSH systems of medicine through education, skill development, workshops and exchange programmes between AYUSH and the UN body for capacity building.The Cabinet gave its nod to the agreement for collaborative activities to be signed between AYUSH Ministry and the World Health Organization in Geneva, an official statement said.The collaboration will "facilitate advocacy and dissemination of information on AYUSH systems among the Member States, collaboration with third parties for creating synergies in implementation of WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023 particularly in the context of AYUSH systems," it said.The expenditure for carrying out collaborative activities will be met from the allocated budget under the existing plan schemes of AYUSH Ministry. The activities will start subsequent to the signing of agreements by the two parties as per terms of reference.As a first step in the long-term collaboration, India would assign to WHO activities for development of the its technical documents and publications like benchmarks for training in Yoga, practice in Ayurveda, Unani Medicine and Panchakarma.This will help in better international acceptability of Indian systems, the statement said.