Kerala team scouts site for national Ayurveda institute, minister tells Assembly

Kerala has set up an official team to find a site for a national Ayurveda institute in the state, Health Minister K. Muraleedharan told the Legislative Assembly during Question Hour on Monday, 26 October 2026. He said the team, which includes the Principal Secretary, was formed after the state made representations to the Union Ayush Minister, has already visited Delhi and is now preparing a detailed report. The move puts Kerala in the race for one of the three new All India Institutes of Ayurveda that the Centre promised in the Union Budget for 2026-27, for which no locations have yet been announced.

The All India Institute of Ayurveda is the country's apex public institution for the system: it combines a referral hospital, postgraduate teaching and research under one roof, on a model often compared with AIIMS. When the Budget promised three more such institutes, it said the aim was to meet growing global demand for Ayurvedic medicine. Where those campuses go matters, because each brings central funding, specialist jobs, research money and patient traffic to its region.

For Kerala, the bid sits alongside other plans for the sector. Earlier this month, at the state's Ayurveda Day function on 9 October, the government said it would upgrade its Ayurveda hospitals and tackle a shortage of therapists. Yet the national apex institutes so far sit in Delhi and Goa. Monday's statement shows the state government is now treating the bid as an administrative priority rather than a wish, with a senior official leading the work and direct contact with the Union ministry.

The competition is real. According to earlier reporting from Kerala, the Union Ayush Ministry will allot the new institutes to the states that score highest on land availability, infrastructure, government commitment and capacity to carry out the project, and it asked Kerala to follow its preliminary report with a detailed study. Jharkhand has moved early, marking out land at Itki near Ranchi for its proposal.

Ayiroor, near Varkala in Thiruvananthapuram district, was reported as the front-runner: land there was first set aside for a Global Ayurveda Village project proposed in 2012 that never took shape, and around 40 acres have already been acquired. Varkala's tourism profile is seen as a plus for medical travel. Cheemeni lies in Kasaragod district in the north, while Athirappilly falls in the Chalakudy area of Thrissur, where the local panchayat has said it can provide the infrastructure needed. The minister did not say on Monday which site the team now favours.

Kerala's site options at a glance: Site | District | What has been reported Ayiroor, Varkala | Thiruvananthapuram | Reported front-runner; about 40 acres already acquired for a 2012 project Cheemeni | Kasaragod | On the Health Department's preliminary list Athirappilly | Thrissur (Chalakudy area) | Local panchayat said it can provide infrastructure

Short-term: The team's detailed report will be the state's formal case to the Union Ayush Ministry. Until the Centre names the three states, no construction, hiring or admissions can begin, and Kerala's proposal remains one bid among several.

Long-term: If Kerala wins a campus, students would gain a new centre for postgraduate and doctoral study in Ayurveda, patients would get a large public referral hospital, and researchers a base for the clinical trials that regulators and doctors increasingly ask for before accepting traditional treatments. A campus could also anchor medical-value tourism in the region chosen.

Who is affected: Ayurveda students and teachers in Kerala, patients who rely on public Ayurveda hospitals, people living near the shortlisted sites, wellness and tourism businesses, and other states competing for the same institutes.

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