The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the establishment of the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (WHO GCTM) in Jamnagar, Gujarat by signing a Host Country agreement between the Government of India and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO GCTM will be established in Jamnagar under the Ministry of AYUSH.  This would be the first and only global outposted Centre (office) for traditional medicine across the globe.

The objective is to position AYUSH systems across the globe; to provide leadership on global health matters pertaining to traditional medicine; to ensure quality, safety and efficacy, accessibility and rational use of traditional medicine; to develop norms, standards, and guidelines in relevant technical areas, tools and methodologies, for collecting data undertaking analytics, and assess impact;  Envisage WHO TM Informatics centre creating a collaborative of existing TM Data banks, virtual libraries, and academic and research institutes; and to develop specific capacity building and training programmes in the areas of relevance to the objectives and conduct training programmes in campus, residential, or web-based, and through partnerships with the WHO Academy and other strategic partners.

A Joint Task Force (JTF) is constituted for coordination, execution and monitoring of activities for the establishment of this Centre.  JTF comprises representatives from the Government of India, Permanent Mission of India, Geneva and the World Health Organization.  Under the ambit of this, an interim office is being established at the ITRA, Jamnagar, Gujarat to execute the identified technical activities and planning of fully functional WHO GCTM.

The WHO-GCTM will identify various challenges faced by the countries in regulating, integrating and further positioning Traditional Medicine in respective countries.