Source: News on Air
Context: The Ministry of Ayush and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare renewed their partnership under the ‘One Herb, One Standard’ initiative for an additional three years.
What It Is
An inter-ministerial collaborative framework to establish unified, scientifically synchronised quality and testing standards (monographs) for medicinal plants used across different systems of medicine in India.
| Implementing body | Parent ministry |
|---|---|
| Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine & Homoeopathy (PCIM&H) | Ministry of Ayush |
| Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) | Autonomous body under MoHFW |
Aim: to eliminate conflicting quality parameters across different pharmacopoeias, establishing single, clear and scientifically reliable standards for medicinal herbs, improving the quality, safety and international credibility of Indian botanical products.
Key Features
- Harmonised quality standards — synchronises testing methods and quality parameters for identical medicinal plants across the Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP) and the Ayurvedic, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathic (ASU&H) Pharmacopoeias.
- Phase-wise monograph development — builds on 50 single-herb monographs developed in the first phase, initiated in 2022.
- Cross-system integration — applies to single drugs of plant origin used across five recognised systems: Ayurveda, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa, Unani and Homoeopathy.
- Alignment with global benchmarks — integrates international quality parameters to meet global trade and regulatory demands.
- Streamlined testing protocols — a single reference standard for testing laboratories, regulators and manufacturers, avoiding conflicting analytical requirements.
Exam Relevance
UPSC — Prelims: the babirusa’s endemism to four Indonesian islands and Vulnerable status; Article 3 and Article 4 and the simple-majority rule for altering State names; the five AYUSH systems including Sowa-Rigpa, and the distinction between IPC (MoHFW) and PCIM&H (Ayush). Mains: the Kerala renaming supports GS-II answers on federalism and Parliament’s power over State identity; OHOS supports GS-III answers on standardisation as a non-tariff trade enabler for AYUSH exports.
NABARD Grade A — OHOS has a real hook: medicinal and aromatic plants cultivation is a rural livelihood, and standardised monographs raise realisation for growers by making the crop export-grade. Connect to the
