New Delhi: In a bid to bolster the fight against future pandemics, India’s top scientific advisor Prof Ajay Kumar Sood has urged G20 countries to collaborate in developing vaccine platforms by cooperating with each other in the pre-competitive research and development phase.
In a video interview with PTI, Sood, who will chair the Chief Scientific Advisors’ Roundtable (CSAR) of G20 countries next week, said India will also present its traditional systems of medicine and seek to harness the knowledge of indigenous communities of different countries.
He said the CSAR meeting in Uttarakhand’s Ramnagar from March 28-30 will also focus on harnessing the benefits of traditional knowledge in healthcare.
“Traditional medicine has a very important role to play but it should be put in scientific context. All that work has to be done. When you have traditional medicines, how can we put it on a platform where it meets the acceptance of science,” he said.
Sood said India has a very rich tradition of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani and all of them have a role to play. It could be to build up immunity or strength or to address the symptoms of a disease, adding “…whatever you think, it is possible”.
“We should not try to limit ourselves to only what we call modern medicine,” he said, making a strong pitch for diversity in various systems of medicine.
Sood also talked about harnessing the knowledge repositories of indigenous communities in G20 countries for the benefit of humankind.
“These are very, very old traditions. The goal should be, what we call traditional knowledge, it is really tested over centuries. It is very important that we take this traditional knowledge along with the other streams,” Sood said.
Sood said the Ayush ministry is working on scientific validation of traditional systems of medicine.
PTI

Press Trust of India