How Ayush Mark Signals India's Bid To Globalise Traditional Medicine
Launched at a WHO summit, the Ayush Mark reflects a strategic attempt to position India’s traditional medicine systems as credible healthcare offerings.
The focus is on quality, safety, and reliability that can withstand international scrutiny.
On 19 December 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally launched the Ayush Mark at the closing ceremony of the Second WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine.
The summit was hosted in New Delhi from 17 to 19 December 2025 and brought together global policymakers, health experts, researchers, and practitioners to deliberate on the future of traditional and integrative healthcare systems.
The theme of this year’s summit, “Restoring balance: The science and practice of health and well-being,” highlighted the growing global interest in holistic and sustainable approaches to health.
The announcement of the Ayush Mark at such an international forum underscored India’s intent to position its traditional medicine systems as credible, high-quality, and globally relevant healthcare solutions.
The Ayush Mark has been conceptualised as a global benchmark for quality, safety, and reliability in traditional medicine products, and also services.
Traditional medicine systems have formed the backbone of India’s cultural and healthcare heritage for centuries, with practices such as Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa, and Homoeopathy being deeply embedded in everyday life.
Over the past decade, the Government of India has taken concerted steps to revive, regulate, and promote these systems. It aims to expand their reach domestically and also to establish India as a global hub for traditional medicine.
Under the aegis of the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa, and Homoeopathy), the government has been actively implementing initiatives to strengthen these holistic health systems.
These efforts span quality standardisation, services, education and training, research and development, infrastructure creation, and international cooperation.
Understanding the Ayush Mark
The broader objective is to integrate traditional medicine more systematically into mainstream healthcare while maintaining global acceptability. The Ayush Mark will play a central role in this strategy by providing a unified recognition framework.
At a time when India is focusing on accrediting and upgrading quality standards across multiple sectors, the Ayush Mark aligns national priorities with global expectations.
Issued by the Ministry of AYUSH, the label is awarded to products and services associated with Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Siddha, Unani, and Homoeopathy.
The presence of the mark on a product indicates adherence to established quality manufacturing practices, the use of standardised raw materials, and compliance with safety testing protocols.
While versions of the Ayush Mark and its two earlier certification levels have existed for several years, the newly launched framework represents a major expansion.
Unlike earlier models that primarily focused on products, the new Ayush Mark also includes services. Historically, recognition and certification under the AYUSH framework were largely limited to products, leaving services such as healthcare delivery and wellness largely outside a unified quality recognition system.
The Difference From Older Certification Marks
The new Ayush Mark addresses this gap by formally including service-based sectors. These include hospitals, wellness centres, medical value travel facilitators, and product testing laboratories.
“Additionally, work is currently underway to incorporate the education and training sectors into the Ayush Mark framework,” Anil Jauhri, Chair of the Working Group for the Ayush Mark, tells Swarajya.
“These additional sectors will be brought under the mark in subsequent phases, further broadening its scope and impact,” he adds.
It is designed to enhance the credibility of Indian traditional medicine products and services while supporting the industry’s long-term growth and international expansion.
The working group responsible for designing the new framework was constituted in December 2024 by the Ministry of AYUSH.
It comprises experts from diverse domains, including regulation, laboratory testing, manufacturing, healthcare services, and hospital management.
Such a multidisciplinary composition was essential, given the complexity of setting quality benchmarks across products and services in traditional medicine systems.
Earlier, under the Quality Council of India (QCI), AYUSH-related products and services followed established certification systems. These included the Ayush Standard Mark and the Ayush Premium Mark.
The Ayush Standard Mark was based on Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) prescribed under Schedule T of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, for Ayurvedic, Siddha, and Unani medicines.
The Ayush Premium Mark, on the other hand, aligned with WHO GMP guidelines for herbal medicines, making it more suitable for international markets.
The new Ayush Mark builds upon these existing certifications while expanding its relevance to services and global benchmarks.
The Way Forward With a Unified Programme
Crucially, the Ayush Mark is not a certification platform but a recognition programme. It acknowledges existing certifications across various categories and evaluates whether they are suitable for global alignment or require modifications to meet international standards.
While many certifications already comply with global norms, the working groups identified gaps in certain service sectors.
For instance, wellness centres and medical value travel facilitators in India previously operated under voluntary domestic certifications, often without sufficient incentives or international recognition.
Under the new Ayush Mark framework, these entities can now receive government-backed recognition that aligns them with international standards.
Furthermore, new certification programmes based on ISO standards are also under development to strengthen this alignment, as per officials.