A comic book series with 'Professor Ayushman' as the central character has been unveiled to make children aware of the importance of medicinal plants and their use for home remedies.

The comic book, conceived by the National Medicinal Plants Board, talks about plants like Aloe Vera, Tulsi, Amla, Giloy, Neem, Ashvagandha and Brahmi.

The AYUSH Ministry has come out with the book that will be available for free and schools can approach the National Medicinal Plant Board with their request.

They will also be available at all AYUSH activities like Arogya Mela and others. AYUSH is the acronym of medical systems that are being practiced in India such as Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy.

"This is an interesting comic book for kids which will teach them about natural medicine and how they can use it," AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik said at a press conference while highlighting the achievements of his ministry in the last 100 days.

The minister also said that three new AYUSH Hospitals have been set up in Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha during the 100-day period of the present government while 306 Ayush hospitals have been upgraded.

Essential medicines have been supplied and sanctioned to more than 11,980 hospitals and dispensaries which will benefit more than 2.9 crore patients, the minister stated.

The support to 2,853 PHCs with co-located AYUSH Centres has been extended during the period for medicines and contingencies which will benefit 64.6 lakh patients.

Pointing out that the health insurance for AYUSH treatments is essential for increasing the access for the public to healthcare, Naik said his ministry has been pursuing the expansion of insurance cover for AYUSH procedures diligently.

He also informed that a proposal for inclusion of 19 AYUSH packages in PM-JAY has been finalised and submitted to the National Health Authority.

"We have also finalised the guidelines for expanding insurance to additional AYUSH treatments, and the response of the Insurance Companies to this has been positive," added the AYUSH Minister.

The AYUSH Minister said that his Ministry has set a target to operationalise 4,200 AYUSH Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) under Ayushman Bharat Scheme during 2019-20.

He also added that after scrutiny of proposals from States, 1,754 HWCs from different States/ UTs are sanctioned, and funds for 1,037 HWCs already released.

The Minister shared the commitment of the Ministry for strengthening the AYUSH health services in States / UTs and informed that an amount of Rs 325 cr funds has been released to states for activities under NAM after due scrutiny of proposals.

While highlighting the efforts of the Ministry of AYUSH in medicinal plants cultivation, the AYUSH Minister said that proposals related to Medicinal Plant cultivation have also been supported. State Action Plans from 17 states were finalised, covering approximately 6500-hectare area, and costing around Rs 36 crore.

"This will benefit over 3,000 farmers, and will include establishment of 44 nurseries and 16 processing units, he said.

To observe the 150th anniversary of the Father of the Nation, 150 mega Naturopathy camps will be held in different States during the one-year period from 2nd Oct 2019, he said.

He said that the BIMSTEC nations with whom we share excellent political and social equations have agreed to jointly set up a BIMSTEC University of Ayurveda and Traditional Medicine in India.

Another significant development has been the Country to Country MoUs signed with Gambia and Guinea, in July and August respectively, for joint efforts in promotion of Traditional Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy. In another landmark, he said.

The minister said that the promotion of research activities in AYUSH Systems based on modern approaches is a priority area for the Ministry and an outlay of Rs 490 crore is anticipated over two years for this project.

Naik also said that a high impact Research project on introducing Ayurveda intervention in Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) in Public Health was operationalised in Primary Health Centres of Gadchiroli District of Maharashtra.

"This will have 10,000 expecting mothers as subjects, a huge sample size for a medical research project. The project is expected to establish the effectiveness of GarbhiniParicharya, the traditional Ayurvedic intervention for Ante-natal care," he added.

The Central Research Councils of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha together validated 110 classical formulations for 60 conditions during this period, completed by generating evidence on clinical safety and efficacy, said the AYUSH Minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)