D E L I V E R I N G H E A L T H
Preamble of Ayurveda
Ayurveda Means " knowledge of life ". The word Ayurveda comes from two root words in Sanskrit, Ayush meaning life or life span and Veda meaning knowledge. Ayurveda is the holistic alternative science and believed to be the oldest healing science in existence, forming the foundation of all others. The origins of Ayurveda have been traced back to around 5,000 BCE or over more than two millennia when they originated as an oral tradition. Some of the concepts of Ayurveda have existed since the times of Indus Valley Civilization.
The ďŹ rst recorded forms of Ayurveda as medical texts evolved from the Vedas. Ayurveda is a discipline of the upaveda or "auxiliary knowledge" in Vedic tradition. The origins of Ayurveda are also found in Atharvaveda, which contains 114 hymns and incantations described as magical cures for disease. In Sushruta Samhita, it is written that Dhanvantari, Hindu god of Ayurveda, incarnated himself as a king of Varanasi and taught medicine to a group of physicians, including Sushruta. Today Ayurveda is practiced by thousands of Ayurveda doctors, and is recognized by the WHO as an eective health science. Globalized and modernized practices derived from Ayurveda traditions are a type of complementary or alternative medicine. The main classical Ayurveda texts begin with accounts of the transmission of medical knowledge from the Gods to sages, and then to human physicians. Ayurveda is one of the few systems of medicine developed in ancient times that is still widely practiced in modern times, up to 80 percent of people in India use some form of traditional medicine, a category which includes Ayurveda.
AYURVEDA: The Next Gigantic Business Prospect Ayurveda has a brilliant future in India as a business proposition due to the ever increasing demand for natural therapies. This huge demand is driven due to various factors like the stressful working culture, exhaustive lifestyle, the endless quest of peace, the growing ailments with less healthy environment. Today, people are on a constant run for serenity and are ready to splurge for the services that can oer them the same in a natural way, which leads to Ayurveda posing a welcome break for all. The business prospects amounts to a $20 billion ready market, which is growing at a very fast rate and would become a $5 trillion market worldwide by 2050. It goes without saying that large portions of this market would be centred in India being the origin. The total size of the Indian Ayurvedic market is INR 50 billion and it is growing substantially at a rate between 10-15 percent, with the same growth rate targeted for the next 10 years. There are two big advantages in this industry to be gained by prospective investors. First, that it is recession proof as the healthcare industry has always been. Second, it reaches out to a larger chunk of target consumers across all income groups. As such, this happens to be a great time to be in the Ayurveda market as it is expected to grow exponentially in the next few years. The fact that Ayurveda provides a viable business opportunity is borne out by the long and successful runs of several brands in this ďŹ eld
Modern Phenomenon: Digitally Driven Indian Marketplace India has an internet users base of about 450 million as of July 2017, 40% of the population. Despite being the second-largest user base in world, only behind China (650 million, 48% of population), the penetration of e-commerce is low compared to markets like the United States (266 million, 84%), or France (54 M, 81%), but is growing at an unprecedented rate, adding around 6 million new entrants every month.
India growing fastest in e-commerce in the World. The e-commerce segment in India is growing and is likely to touch USD 33 billion In the 201617 ďŹ scal, the online market had grown by 19 per cent. India's e-commerce market according to a study done by Indian Institute of eCommerce, by 2020 India is expected to generate USD 100 billion online retail revenue. A new sector in e-commerce is online medicine, selling complementary and alternative medicine or prescription medicine online.
Born of Aushadhalaya: The Next Gigantic Business Prospect + Digitally Driven Indian Marketplace Aushadhalaya is creating synergy between health and technology. One of the progressive technology models which has positioned itself as an attractive model in the healthcare space is e-pharmacy. Today, the health space is completely dominated by multiple intermediaries/ middlemen, many of whom take advantage of the fact that consumers don't have the information at their disposal. There are two models which operate in this category. One is a market place model where a technology company connects neighbourhood pharmacies to the end user. Other is an inventory-based model where e-pharmacy is an online service of an oine pharmacy. We are designing aushadhalaya in such a way that we can make our ďŹ rst of its kind Valuechain Marketplace in ayurveda industry by combining both models (Marketplace + Inventory) which might enhance the e-commerce experience for aushadhalaya partners and its customers.