ICMR ANd NIF

ICMR and NIF sign MoU

To address these issues, National Innovation Foundation (NIF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 23.06.2006 with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Prof. N K Ganguly, Director General, ICMR and Prof. Anil K Gupta, Executive Vice Chairperson, NIF India signed the MoU at ICMR Headquarters at New Delhi be valid for a period of five years. This is a pioneering collaboration in the field of medical science. Never before, such a synergy was achieved between informal, uncodified and non-classical health related people’s knowledge and the apex institution for medical research in the country. The collaboration will focus on drug development from grassroots traditional knowledge-based practices that incorporate either use of new
medicinal plants not reported in any Indian codified literature or new use
of already mentioned medicinal plants or in the case of multi-herb formulations, one of the ingredients should satisfy either of the above two conditions. This will also serve to recognize, respect and reward the knowledge rich, economically poor indigenous people, as is ethically required for any clinical trial with herbal medicines based on folklore knowledge.
  While the practices will be documented and sourced from the rich NIF database, ICMR will work towards validating the safety and efficacy of the practices that are claimed to have therapeutic value by grassroots healers. A monitoring committee comprising representatives of both organizations and several eminent scientists of the country will monitor the progress. Any benefit generated will largely go to the traditional knowledge holders and partly to other stakeholders in the value chain to the extent of their involvement.