India has pledged US$85 million over 10 years to the World Health Organization's Global Traditional Medicine Centre, a move that underscores New Delhi's determination to position traditional medicine as a more formal part of global health policy and evidence-based care.
The donor agreement, signed in Geneva, will fund programming at the centre from 2022 through 2032 and support a cross-sectoral workplan aimed at strengthening the evidence base for traditional medicine. According to WHO, the money will help generate data and analysis on traditional medicine policies, practices, products and public use, a step the agency says is necessary if traditional systems are to be integrated more effectively into health systems around the world.
The commitment is part of a larger US$250 million Indian investment linked to the establishment of the WHO Global Centre of Traditional Medicine in 2022. That broader package includes support for the centre's workplan, interim premises and a new building. WHO said the contribution will expand its capacity on traditional medicine across technical divisions and regions, and that part of the funding will also be directed to the organization's Investment Round to support core work during 2025–2028.
The announcement comes at a time when traditional medicine is used by billions of people worldwide, particularly in countries where herbal, indigenous and complementary practices remain deeply embedded in everyday health care. WHO has increasingly sought to frame the issue not as a rejection of modern medicine, but as a question of evidence, regulation and access. The agency says traditional medicine, when supported within national health systems, can help reach people who are often left behind by conventional care.
"India's commitment and leadership in expanding the evidence-based contribution of traditional medicine to the health and well-being of all people and the planet, comes at an opportune moment," said Dr Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General of the Universal Health Coverage and Life Course division of WHO. "Traditional medicine, supported within national health systems, can allow us to reach those most often left behind. Integration of traditional practice and knowledge is critical to achieving health for all."
For India, the agreement is also a diplomatic and strategic signal. The country has long promoted Ayurveda, yoga, Unani, Siddha and other systems through its Ministry of Ayush, and has increasingly tied that domestic policy agenda to international health cooperation. Vice Minister Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary of the Ministry of Ayush, called the signing "a major milestone towards achieving the shared vision of Honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi and WHO Director-General Tedros for the development of the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre at Jamnagar in India."
India's Permanent Representative to the UN and other International Organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Arindam Bagchi, said the country remains committed to helping WHO strengthen traditional medicine systems globally in support of universal health coverage. "India remains committed to supporting WHO in its work to strengthen traditional medicine systems globally for achieving universal health coverage and serving the entire humanity, especially through this Global Centre in Jamnagar, which would help focus these efforts to benefit all Member States," he said.
The WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre is intended to serve as a knowledge hub across five interconnected areas: research and evidence; primary health care and universal health coverage; Indigenous Knowledges and biodiversity; digital health applications; and the biennial WHO Global Traditional Medicine Summit and related collaborations. The centre is led by Dr Shyama Kuruvilla, Director a.i.
The Geneva agreement also builds on momentum from the first WHO traditional medicine global summit, held in August 2023 in Gujarat, which produced the Gujarat Declaration, a multistakeholder action agenda. The next summit is scheduled for November 2025, and is expected to follow the anticipated launch of the 2025–2034 Global Strategy for Traditional Medicine at the 78th World Health Assembly in May 2025.
India's support for WHO's traditional medicine work has been growing steadily. In 2023, it signed a five-year agreement to support the technical work of WHO's Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine unit. That unit continues to support WHO's broader effort to assess where traditional medicine can be safely, credibly and effectively incorporated into health systems.
The latest pledge is likely to be read in two ways: as a practical investment in research and institutional capacity, and as a statement of India's ambition to shape the global conversation on health knowledge systems. In a field often marked by competing claims, the emphasis from WHO and India is on evidence, collaboration and inclusion — and on turning a longstanding cultural practice into a more rigorously studied component of public health policy.