The Tata Group is setting up the Indian Institute of Ayurveda Integrated Medicine (IIAIM) in Bangalore and ties up with Dept of Science and Tech for Rs 64 cr project in Bangalore.

The Indian Institute of Ayurveda Integrated Medicine (IIAIM) will function in association with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), and the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), a Bangalore-based NGO that supports traditional healing methods.

Designed by FRLHT on the lines of Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) and Indian Institutes of Science (ISC), the IIAIM will act as India’s premier finishing school for qualified ayurvedic doctors, postgraduates, physiotherapists and Yoga experts.

The Institute will offer highly-specialized, short-term and long-term courses to help the students practice in accordance with the demands of modern healthcare delivery systems, besides advanced research and post-doctoral programmes.

The IIAIM and a 100-bed Ayurveda and Yoga hospital, with a total investment of Rs 64 crore, will come up at Yelahanka, Bangalore, by 2009. The Tata Group’s Sir Dorabji Tata Trust will invest Rs 34 crore. The rest is likely to come from DST, said Dr G G Gangadharan, joint director, FRLHT.

The Sir Dorabji Trust has agreed to fund Rs 15 crore to the Ayurvedic firm Kottakkal Arya Vaidyasala in Kerala to undertake drug research based on medicinal plants. It may be noted that the Tatas, who had exited from the pharmaceutical business almost a decade ago by hiving off their Rallis India’s pharma division, re-entered the scene two years ago by promoting Advinus Therapeutics, a Bangalore-based pure drug discovery company headed by Dr Reshmi Barbaiya, a former Ranbaxy R&D head.  The Tatas have also invested in Avesthagen, a Bangalore-based biotechnology company and Indigene, a Hyderabad-based biopharmaceutical firm. FRLHT is also planning to set up 100 Ayurvedic clinics and 150 mother and childcare centres in the country.