Government Aims Yoga Asanas To Get Sports
While addressing the audience, P.N. Ranjit Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India informed that the government is working towards getting yoga asana accepted as a sport. “the National Board for Promotion and Development of Yoga and Naturopathy has recommended recognizing yoga asanas (poses) as a sporting activity”, he further added.
The inaugural session also saw a welcome address from Sandeep Ahuja, Chairman, FICCI Wellness Committee & Director, VLCC Healthcare, a presentation on FICCI-E&Y Knowledge paper by Pinakiranjan Mehta, Partner, EY, and address speeches from Sharad Marathe, Chairman, Ayush Task Force, Harish Nandkarni, CEO, NABH. The session was concluded by Rajiv Nair, Co-Chairman, FICCI Wellness Committee & CEO, Kaya Ltd.
Following the inaugural session, a series of panel discussions were lined up which talked upon issues, opportunities, challenges, and the roadmap of the wellness industry. In a panel discussion which talked about Business of Wellness industry, Dr Akshay Batra, Vice Chairman & MD, Dr Batra’s Positive Health Clinic Pvt Ltd said that the as the government is looking to bridge homoeopathy doctors with allopathy doctors, it will give a major boost to the industry.
Further, taking the conversation forward, Marathe stresses that the government should play the role of looking for the standardisation and help in establishing clinical trial laboratories and then stay out of the business. Focusing on the role of insurance players in the wellness industry, Ritesh Reddy Mastipuram, India CEO, Jean-Claude Biguine Salon & Spa highlighted that as the insurance companies in the west are already acknowledging the alternative sides of wellbeing covered by the insurance, India too needs a similar ecosystem to promote the wellness industry.
Another panel discussion on ‘Nurturing the Wellness Industry for a Healthier and Happier India’, focused on the usage of traditional medicine and preventive practices such as Ayurveda, Naturopathy, and Siddha to a more multi-dimensional concept of physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. The panel was moderated by Dr Gaurav Karnik, Partner, EY and had on-board Sandeep Ahuja, Rajiv Nair, Arun Misra, Executive Vice-President, Regulatory Affairs (Indian Sub-Continent), GSK Consumer Healthcare Ltd and Chair FICCI OTC Committee, Sanjay Sachdeva, Co-Founder & CEO, Daivam Wellness, and Istayak Ansari, Director & Co-Founder, Truefitt and Hill (India).
The event concluded with a panel discussion on the topic ‘Sports and Fitness for Sustainable Economic Growth moderated by sports presenter and author Nikhil Naz. Focusing on the role of schools in the growth of sports sector, Ajay Jadeja, Former Indian Cricket Team Captain said, “One of the ways to trace children is to look at the activities that they have. School play a major role in developing sports habit as children spend their major time at the school so it’s difficult that you teach them.”
The discussion was taken forwarded by Kaizzad Capaadia, Senior Vice-President, SPEFL-SC & Co-Founder & Director of K11 Academy of Fitness Sciences and he stressed that India is metabolic unfit, and a metabolic change is the necessity of the hour as better nutrition will help in increasing the energy.
However, Hemanshu Chaturvedi, Member FICCI Sports Committee and CMD, HTC Sports denied the fact of metabolism and believed that it is more to do with the habits of the individuals which helps them to stay fit.
