The Union Ministry of Ayush has come out with the revised guidelines governing the National Dhanwantari Ayurveda Award to be conferred to renowned ayurvedic practitioners, while celebrating the Ayurveda Day every year on the day of Dhanwantari Jayanti (Dhanteras).
According to the new resolution, the Ministry has taken a decision to bestow the award to renowned Ayurveda practitioners with not less than 40 years of age and having minimum 20 years of professional experience.
The Award will be for significant contribution in the field of Ayurveda in terms of promotion and propagation of Ayurveda at National and International Level, or teaching or research and development or Policy and planning for Ayurveda promotion and integration at National level, integration of Ayurveda in various National Health Programmes benefiting people at large scale, etc.
The eligible Ayurveda professionals should have direct or indirect impact on the society through work in the field of Ayurveda at the national and international level. They should have a Degree in Ayurveda recognised as per the provisions of the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020 or The Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970 as applicable, will be eligible to be considered for the Award.
Past awardees will not be considered for the second time for the same award.
These guidelines has been included by modifying the previous resolution issued on June 1, 2017, which stipulated the eligibility criteria that all the Ayurveda professionals possessing qualification included in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th schedule of the Indian Medicine Central Council (IMCC) Act, 1970, would be eligible for the award.
The Ministry is planning to give three awards annually, with a citation, trophy (Dhanwantari Statue) and cash reward of Rs. 5 lakh.
In the latest resolution, the Ministry said that the purpose of the Award is to encourage excellence through competition. These awards would help to promote and motivate adoption of best practices in the pursuit of excellence in Ayurveda.
“The Ministry of Ayush, Government of India has instituted ‘National Dhanwantri Ayurveda Award’ to be conferred on this day (Ayurveda Day) of eminent Vaidyas and Ayurveda experts to motivate them to adopt best practices of Ayurveda in pursuit of excellence…,” it added.
The Selection Committee will consist of the Secretary of Ministry of Ayush as the Chairman and three Ayurveda experts to be nominated by the Secretary as members.
A panel of awardees would be prepared by the selection committee for final selection by the Minister of Ayush. The Selection Committee will invite online nominations in the prescribed format uploaded on the National Awards Portal, and will devise its own procedure to select the awardees.
The award shall be presented at the time of Annual “Ayurveda Day” to be celebrated on Dhanwantari Jayanti (Dhanteras) and the names of awardees shall be published in the Official Gazette.