New Delhi-based Maharishi Ayurveda Products started production of Ayurvedic products in India way back in 1987. Initially, the production was only meant for the export markets, but realizing the growing market and demand for its products, in 1994 the company started selling its products in the Indian market.

In an exclusive conversation with indiamarkets, Anand Shrivastava, president of Maharishi Ayurveda Products, aired some of the concerns related to the age-old system of medicine. "Ayurveda is a comprehensive system of natural healthcare which is over 1000 years old. Ever since its inception, this system has been used clinically and has also been well-researched and now, it is recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as an effective, traditional health science," he said.

On being asked the reasons for entering the Ayurvedic products market, Shrivastava said, "Recognising that Ayurvedic practices had become diluted and no longer included the precision and integrity of the original techniques, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program gathered the leading Ayurvedic physicians and scholars from all around the world. Their task was to delve deeply into the theory and practice of the ancient Ayurvedic system and to restore this age-old knowledge to its completeness and original purity."

Lamenting the government's attitude towards Ayurveda, Shrivastava said, "The Indian government should take pride in our traditional knowledge base (which has a vast textual-knowledge base), just like the Chinese do about Acupuncture. If the government opens its eyes and realises the potentials of Ayurveda, it can be a major source of income as well as pride. You know acupuncture got a major boost in the United States, when Ronald Reagan, the then US president, was cured of back-ache while on a visit to China. When this found publicity by the world-wide press, acupuncture got a major breakthrough in the US market. But we have not been able to do any such thing when it comes to Ayurvedic products."

It is widely known that Ayurveda originated within the Vedic tradition of India, and many Ayurvedic techniques are widely practiced in India today. However, these practices generally do not incorporate the full understanding of Ayurveda from the original tradition. Due to the passage of time and the influence of other cultures, many of the ancient Ayurvedic system's techniques and prescriptions for healing were lost. As a result, only a tiny, fragmented part of the knowledge remained, and which is being used by the company to provide better health management.

"Together, with Maharishi's guidance and inspiration, these great exponents of Ayurveda have re-established Ayurveda in its completeness, giving us a complete, time-tested and systematised system of natural health care for our modern age. We call this newly revived system of Ayurveda, Maharishi Ayurveda," he added.

According to Shrivastava, in spite of all the hurdles being faced by Ayurveda, it has been able to achieve a better growth rate as compared to Allopathy. "We are promoting it further by teaching Ayurveda in Allopathic colleges around the world and that too with limited resources," Shrivastava said.

"While modern medicine has made great advances in the treatment of disease, it is commonly recognised that there are major gaps in modern health care. Maharishi Ayurveda helps to fill these gaps by offering natural, cost-effective solutions without harmful side effects. Most importantly, Maharishi Ayurveda treats imbalance at its source rather than merely putting an end to symptoms. The basis of Ayurveda lies in prevention: strengthening the body's immune system and self-repair mechanisms so that the individual naturally maintains health.The programs offered are simple and one can easily incorporate any of them into daily life to produce significant benefits," advocated Shrivastava.

Citing some examples about the efficacy of Ayurvedic products, Shrivastava said they have come up with "Amrit Kalash", the drug for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, which reduces nausea, hair loss, and appetite loss; "Pidant" which is a wonder cure for arthritis and "Glucomat" for Diabetes. He also advocated over-the-counter (OTC) sale of Ayurvedic products.

Concerned over the scarcity of herbs, he said, "Farmers should be encouraged to grow scarce/rare herbs, and those herbs can be grown on wastelands. However, export of raw herbs should immediately be banned. Presently, we are having a large-scale cultivation of herbs in African countries, besides Himachal Pradesh, and Arunachal Pradesh in India.

According to Shrivastava, the Ayurvedic medicines' market is growing at a rate of more than 25 per cent, and to achieve more growth, the government should propagates Ayurveda through Indian consulates abroad.

Besides, Maharishi is training and educating doctors from all around the world. Recently, the company had organised a training camp of one month at Noida, which was attended by more than 200 doctors from all around the world. "Till now, over 7,000 doctors have been trained; 20,000 is the target we have set for the next two years which will comprise doctors mainly from the north America."

In order to capture more market share, Maharishi is also working toward getting ISO 9002, he said.