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Ayush Quality Mark: India’s Traditional Medicine Eyes the Global Health Market

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Ayush Quality Mark: India’s Traditional Medicine Eyes the Global Health Market

New quality framework seeks to link Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy and other Ayush products and services with internationally recognised standards

Anil Jauhri

New Delhi I Saturday I October 03, 2026

India is making a renewed push to take its traditional systems of medicine beyond the domestic market and establish them as credible players in the global healthcare sector. At the centre of this effort is the Ayush Quality Mark, a new framework designed to demonstrate the quality and international conformity of Ayush products and services and make them more acceptable in overseas markets.

The initiative comes at a time when interest in traditional and complementary systems of healthcare is growing worldwide. While Yoga has already achieved considerable international recognition, other Indian systems—including Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy—and their associated products and services have yet to acquire a comparable global presence.

The Ayush Quality Mark seeks to address this gap by connecting India’s traditional healthcare systems with internationally recognised regulatory, certification and accreditation frameworks.

From Traditional Knowledge to Global Standards

Ayush represents a vast body of traditional Indian knowledge relating to health and wellbeing. Over the past decade, the government has sought to give this sector a more organised institutional framework and expand its international reach.

A separate Ministry of Ayush was established in 2014. This was followed by a series of initiatives, including certification of Yoga professionals in 2015, certification of traditional medicine practitioners in 2017 and accreditation of Ayurveda training courses in 2021.

The Ayush Quality Mark is being seen as the next major step in this process.

The idea was first articulated by the Prime Minister at an international conference in Gandhinagar in April 2022. He called for a dedicated Ayush mark that could help Indian traditional medicine products and services gain greater acceptance in international markets.

The proposal was significant because it was not confined to medicines. It envisaged a quality framework covering a much wider range of Ayush products, institutions and services.

After consultations with experts, the Ministry of Ayush constituted a Working Group in January 2025 to develop the framework in accordance with global standards. The Ayush Quality Mark was formally launched by the Prime Minister on 19 December 2025.

What Will the Quality Mark Cover?

The framework covers a broad spectrum of the Ayush sector. These include:

- Medicinal products
- Botanical products
- Medicinal plants
- Product-testing laboratories
- Hospitals
- Day-care centres
- Clinics
- Wellness centres
- Medical Value Travel Facilitators

An important feature of the framework is that it does not seek to create an entirely new Indian standard for every category. Instead, it builds upon regulatory approvals, certifications and accreditation systems that already enjoy international recognition.

The Working Group has identified a number of possible benchmarks for determining compliance. These include foreign regulatory approvals, internationally recognised certification and accreditation systems, World Health Organization (WHO) standards, ISO standards and other recognised global benchmarks.

For herbal medicines, for example, WHO Good Manufacturing Practices can provide an important reference point. For medicinal plants, Good Agricultural and Field Collection Practices can be applied.

Relevant standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the international certification framework of Global Accreditation Cooperation Inc. (GACI) are also part of the framework.

Other recognised international standards, including those relating to organic production and food safety, may also be applicable depending on the nature of the product or service.

More Than One Route for Industry

The framework gives manufacturers and service providers alternative ways of demonstrating compliance with international requirements.

For Ayush medicinal products, this may include regulatory approval obtained in a foreign country, a Certificate of Pharmaceutical Product (CoPP), or the Ayush Premium Mark awarded under the voluntary certification scheme operated by the Quality Council of India (QCI) for the Ministry of Ayush.

Hospitals, wellness centres and Medical Value Travel Facilitators similarly have two principal routes.

One is healthcare accreditation under the framework of the ISQua External Evaluation Association (ISQua EEA). The other is certification against relevant ISO standards under the GACI system.

For healthcare organisations, standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 7101 may be applicable. For Medical Value Travel Facilitators, ISO 22525 has been identified as a relevant standard.

The multiple-route approach is intended to provide flexibility while ensuring that the underlying quality requirements remain internationally credible.

Education and Training Enter the Framework

The scope of the initiative is also being extended to Ayush education and training.

Several institutions already operate certification and accreditation mechanisms in this area. These include the National Commission for Indian Systems of Medicine (NCISM), the Yoga Certification Board (YCB) and the Ayurveda Training Accreditation Board (ATAB).

For these systems to qualify under the Ayush Quality Mark framework, however, their certification and accreditation criteria will have to be aligned with internationally recognised standards.

In medical education, voluntary mechanisms for establishing international equivalence exist through organisations such as the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME).

For training services, the Working Group has identified ISO 29993, the international standard for Learning Service Providers, as a relevant benchmark.

No Fresh Audit for Every Applicant

One of the more significant features of the Ayush Quality Mark is that applicants are not necessarily required to undergo a completely new and separate audit.

The framework is primarily based on recognition of existing compliance. Instead of conducting a fresh audit of every applicant, a desk-review mechanism will examine the documents and evidence submitted by the applicant.

The purpose is to establish whether the product, institution or service already meets the relevant international standards.

This approach could reduce duplication of assessments and make the system more practical for organisations that have already obtained recognised certifications or accreditations.

From Export Promotion to an Independent System

At present, the Ayush Quality Mark programme has been placed under the Ayush Export Promotion Council (Ayushexcil). The proposal is to eventually operate the system through an independent organisation.

The programme is therefore intended to serve not merely as another certification label but as a mechanism for building confidence in Indian traditional healthcare in international markets.

For India, the larger challenge will be to convert the country's considerable traditional medical knowledge into products and services that meet globally accepted requirements of quality, safety, consistency and professional competence.

If effectively implemented, the Ayush Quality Mark could provide a common framework through which international buyers, healthcare institutions and consumers can assess the credibility of Indian Ayush products and services.

The initiative thus represents an attempt to bridge two worlds: India's centuries-old traditional healthcare knowledge and the modern global system of standards, certification and accreditation.

Its ultimate significance will depend on how rigorously the standards are applied and how widely the mark is recognised in international markets. But the move marks an important effort to give India's traditional systems of medicine a more structured and credible identity in the global healthcare arena.

Detailed information on the Ayush Quality Mark programme is available at ayushqualitymark.in.This version should work better for MediaMap because the opening immediately tells the reader what has happened, why it matters and what the new initiative is intended to achieve.

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