Which one of the following is the latest addition to the AYUSH group of health care system?
- (a)Unani
- (b)Siddha
- (c)Sowa-Rigpa
- (d)Reiki
Correct — C, Sowa-Rigpa. The acronym AYUSH was built from Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy, and those were the systems the department, later the Ministry, began with. Sowa-Rigpa is the addition. It is the Himalayan and Tibetan system of medicine practised in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, and the Government of India recognised it in 2010 as a science of healing, later approving a National Institute of Sowa-Rigpa at Leh in Ladakh for research and development in it. Unani and Siddha are in the acronym itself and so cannot be the latest addition, and Reiki is not part of AYUSH at all.
- (a)Unani — The 'U' of AYUSH. A Graeco-Arabic system that reached India in the medieval period and has had its own councils, colleges and central research council for decades — it is among the founding systems, not the newest.
- (b)Siddha — The 'S' of AYUSH. A system rooted in the Tamil country and associated with the Siddhars, likewise one of the original systems in the group.
- (d)Reiki — A Japanese practice of palm healing. It has no place in AYUSH — it has never been recognised as a system of medicine by the Government of India, and it has no council, no statutory education framework and no research council in the AYUSH structure.
AYUSH is the Government of India's umbrella for the traditional and non-conventional systems of medicine. It began as a department in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, first as the Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy and then under the AYUSH name, and was upgraded into a full Ministry of AYUSH on 9 November 2014. Each recognised system carries an institutional apparatus behind it — an education and practice regulator, a central research council and national institutes.
Read the acronym and three of the four options answer themselves — U and S are already inside it, and Reiki is nowhere in it. That leaves the one system whose name does not appear in the letters, which is exactly what 'latest addition' should mean. The wider point worth carrying is that recognition is a formal act with consequences: once a system is recognised, its practitioners can be registered, its colleges regulated, and public money spent on research and institutions for it, which is why the Leh institute followed the 2010 recognition rather than preceding it.
- AYUSH stands for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy.
- Sowa-Rigpa, the Himalayan and Tibetan system, was recognised by the Government of India in 2010 as a science of healing.
- A National Institute of Sowa-Rigpa was approved at Leh in Ladakh for research and development in the system.
- The Ministry of AYUSH was created on 9 November 2014 by upgrading the earlier department.
- Reiki, a Japanese practice of palm healing, is not part of AYUSH.
- Choosing Unani or Siddha without noticing that both letters are already inside the acronym.
- Assuming any alternative healing practice in circulation is part of AYUSH; Reiki is not.
- Confusing the recognition of Sowa-Rigpa in 2010 with the creation of the Ministry of AYUSH in 2014.
As an odd-one-out or latest-addition item on the AYUSH systems, or as a match of systems to their regions and institutions.
How many of the following statements regarding medicine and related practices in medieval India is/are correct? 1. Indian medicine of the Graeco-Arabic tradition (Tibb-i-Yunani) was almost identical in its practice with contemporary Persian medicine. 2. Harvey's discovery of the circulation of blood was explained to a scholarly noble by European traveller Francois Bernier. 3. The practice of smallpox inoculation was described in contemporary Yunani and Ayurvedic texts. Select the correct answer.
- (a) 1
- (b) 2
- (c) 3
- (d) None
Answer(b) 2
The historical depth behind two of the systems named in these options. Its opening statement turns on Tibb-i-Yunani, the Graeco-Arabic tradition that gives the Unani in the acronym its name, and the item as a whole tests what medieval Indian medicine actually recorded rather than what it is assumed to have recorded.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Ministry of AYUSH was created as a separate Ministry in the year
- (a)2003
- (b)2010
- (c)2014
- (d)2019
Answer(c) 2014 — on 9 November 2014, by upgrading the existing Department of AYUSH in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Sowa-Rigpa, recognised by the Government of India as a system of medicine, is traditionally practised mainly in
- (a)the Konkan coast
- (b)the Himalayan region including Ladakh and Sikkim
- (c)the Tamil country
- (d)the Chota Nagpur plateau
Answer(b) the Himalayan region including Ladakh and Sikkim — it is the Tibetan and Himalayan system, and the National Institute of Sowa-Rigpa was approved at Leh.