Students aspiring for a seat in any of the AYUSH streams (ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha and homoeopathy) will have to clear National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) from 2018-2019 academic year.
The decision has been taken to standardise the admission procedure and attract meritorious students to the AYUSH stream, said Ayush Minister Shripad Naik at the second edition of National Health Editors' Conference on Yoga here on Friday.
"The demand for AYUSH system has increased worldwide and the number of students pursuing such courses has also risen.
So there is a need to maintain standard of education in this stream," said Health Secretary CK Mishra who is also holding the charge of Ayush secretary.
A group of secretaries in a recent meeting had also suggested to the Prime Minister that the Medical Council of India re-frame curricula in order to incorporate elements of AYUSH into allopathy and vice versa.
At the event, eminent experts of yoga and modern medicine like Dr K K Deepak, AIIMS, New Delhi spoke on yoga and stress management, Dr RS Bhogal, Kaivalyadhama, Pune talked about yoga and mental health while Dr Hemant Bhargava, SVYASA, Bangalore dwelled in details on benefits of yoga in controlling non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and heart attacks.
They said that yoga has power to improve health and reduces stress, which is a cause for several disorders such as thyroid, blood sugar imbalances, decreased bone density and muscle tissue, high blood pressure, reduced immunity and poor capacity to heal, and increased fat deposits around abdomen that are associated with heart attacks, strokes and elevated "bad" cholesterol.
later Dr Ishwara N Acharya, Director, Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy, said that the council is conducting a mega multicentric research study on efficacy of yoga on diabetes in which around 2.50 lakhs people have been screened and the preliminary results of this research study are very encouraging.