Wednesday, January 11 2006 18:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In a major step towards promoting Ayurvedic studies in the US and tapping its $40 billion herbal market, India has cleared the proposal to send experts to teach Ayurveda in 10 American medical colleges.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has extended his full support for the proposal and we are in touch with officials of Ayurveda department in this regard," a senior medical representative of Indian Doctors in the US, Navin C. Shah told sources.

Shah, who met Singh yesterday and is scheduled to meet senior bureaucrats to work out the proposal, said under the arrangement Indian government will finance two Ayurveda professors for the course.

Shah said a short course in Ayurveda will create further interest in learning and use of ancient Indian system of medicine benefiting patients in the US.

Shah, a leading Urologist in Washington and the former President of the American Association of Physicians of Indian origin, representing 41,000 doctors, said there existed a vast 40 billion dollar herbal market in the US.

"In India the Ayurveda sector is only worth one billion dollars but the Americans spend over $40 billion annually on herbal medicines and products," he said adding that awareness about Ayurveda will enable to tap the vast market in the US.