The Workshop was jointly inaugurated by the Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge) and Health & Family Welfare, Shripad Yesso Naik and U.S. Ambassador to India,  Richard Verma and Assistant Secretary of Global Affairs at HHS, Ambassador Jimmy Kolker.

Representatives from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Global Affairs (OGA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI), and U.S. academic institutions will interact with their counterparts from the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH), and Indian research institutes and universities, in New Delhi during the workshop.

The Workshop is being organized under the auspices of the first U.S.-India Health Dialogue held in September, 2015 in Washington, D.C. This effort underscores the discussions between the U.S. President and the Indian Prime Minister to encourage bilateral dialogue on traditional medicine.

Addressing the participants, the AYUSH Minister, Shripad Naik said that globalization of AYUSH is one of the major policy thrusts of our Government.

The constructive collaboration between India and U.S. in this field is important for incorporating more scientific inputs from both sides in Traditional Medicines which can help mainstreaming AYUSH systems in patient health care across the globe.

India is also collaborating with World Health Organization (WHO) in the area of Traditional Medicine which will help in achieving international acceptability and positioning of AYUSH systems, the Minister explained.