🪔 Wisdom Drop–79
Restoring Balance for People and Planet: India, WHO and the Global Reimagining of Health
Post Date: 01 January 2026
Mains Mapping: GS-II (Health, Global Governance) | Essay
Anchored in: Second WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine, New Delhi
🌍 Wisdom Essay (≈1200 words)
The idea of health has never been static. Across civilisations, it has evolved alongside humanity’s understanding of nature, society, and the self. The Second WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine, hosted by India in January 2026, marks a significant moment in this long journey. At a time when the world grapples with climate change, mental health crises, antimicrobial resistance, and inequitable healthcare access, the summit signals a conscious global attempt to re-examine the philosophical foundations of health itself.
The summit’s theme, “Restoring Balance for People and Planet: The Science and Practice of Well-Being,” is revealing. It does not reject modern biomedicine; rather, it questions the sufficiency of a purely reductionist, disease-centric model. By foregrounding balance, prevention, and harmony with nature, the summit repositions traditional medicine from the margins of cultural practice to the centre of global health governance.
From Cultural Knowledge to Global Governance
Traditional medicine has often been misunderstood as either folklore or an alternative of last resort. In reality, it represents a vast spectrum of codified and non-codified systems such as Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Traditional Chinese Medicine, African herbal traditions, and indigenous healing practices worldwide. These systems are rooted in long-term empirical observation, ecological sensitivity, and holistic care, emphasising prevention, lifestyle, and personalised healing.
The World Health Organization’s increasing engagement with traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM) reflects a paradigm shift. The summit in New Delhi, grounded in the Gujarat Declaration of 2023 and aligned with WHO’s Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034, indicates that traditional medicine is no longer treated as an adjunct but as a legitimate component of health systems. India’s role in hosting both the first and second summits underscores its emergence as a norm-setter in this evolving domain.
India’s Civilisational Soft Power in Health
India’s leadership in the global traditional medicine discourse is not accidental. With Ayurveda, Yoga, Siddha, Unani, and Sowa-Rigpa embedded in its civilisational ethos, India possesses both cultural legitimacy and institutional depth. However, what distinguishes the current phase is the shift from cultural assertion to regulatory and scientific integration.
Initiatives such as the My Ayush Integrated Services Portal represent an attempt to bring coherence to a fragmented ecosystem by integrating services, research, education, and governance under a digital public infrastructure framework. Similarly, the proposed Ayush Mark seeks to address a long-standing credibility gap by creating a global quality benchmark for Ayush products and services. In a world wary of unregulated herbal markets and pseudoscience, standardisation becomes the bridge between tradition and trust.
The Traditional Medicine Global Library, envisioned as the world’s largest digital repository of TCIM knowledge, further reflects this transition. By documenting, digitising, and classifying traditional knowledge, India addresses two critical challenges simultaneously: biopiracy and scientific invisibility. Knowledge that remains undocumented is vulnerable to appropriation, while knowledge that remains unstandardised struggles to gain scientific acceptance.
Health, Ecology and the Planetary Crisis
One of the most profound contributions of the summit lies in its implicit linkage between human health and planetary health. Traditional medicine systems are inherently ecological. They view the human body as an extension of nature rather than as an isolated biological machine. In an era of climate change, biodiversity loss, and unsustainable pharmaceutical supply chains, this perspective gains renewed relevance.
Modern health systems, while technologically advanced, are resource-intensive and often environmentally extractive. Traditional medicine, with its emphasis on local resources, preventive care, and lifestyle correction, offers a complementary pathway toward sustainable healthcare. The summit’s emphasis on balance thus extends beyond physiology to encompass ecological ethics.
Technology as an Enabler, Not a Threat
A common critique of traditional medicine has been its perceived incompatibility with modern scientific methods. The New Delhi summit directly addressed this tension by foregrounding technology and innovation. The use of digital health platforms, artificial intelligence, and data standardisation tools for research and evidence generation marks an important evolution.
By leveraging AI for pattern recognition in clinical outcomes, standardising terminologies across systems, and creating interoperable datasets, traditional medicine can move from anecdotal validation to evidence-informed practice. This is not about forcing traditional systems into biomedical moulds, but about creating epistemic bridges that allow mutual learning.
Global Collaboration and Health Diplomacy
The summit also functioned as a platform for health diplomacy. Initiatives such as Centres of Excellence for BIMSTEC countries and partnerships with Japan signal India’s intent to position traditional medicine as a shared regional and global public good. The reinforcement of the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre in Jamnagar further institutionalises this vision within the multilateral system.
In a fragmented global order marked by vaccine nationalism and health inequities, traditional medicine offers a relatively non-contentious space for cooperation. Unlike patented pharmaceuticals, traditional knowledge systems can be shared, adapted, and localised, provided ethical safeguards are in place.
Challenges and Ethical Imperatives
Despite its promise, the global integration of traditional medicine is not without risks. The rush to commercialise can dilute authenticity. Over-standardisation may strip systems of contextual sensitivity. Poor regulation can lead to misinformation and public harm. Moreover, not all traditional practices withstand scientific scrutiny, and romanticising the past can be as dangerous as dismissing it.
Therefore, the path forward lies in epistemic humility. Traditional medicine must be evaluated rigorously, regulated transparently, and integrated ethically. The WHO’s strategy and India’s initiatives suggest an awareness of these challenges, but sustained political and scientific commitment will be essential.
Conclusion
The Second WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine marks more than an event; it represents a philosophical reorientation of global health. By placing balance, prevention, and planetary well-being at the heart of policy discourse, it challenges the world to move beyond a reactive, disease-centric paradigm.
India’s role in this transition reflects a mature form of soft power, one that does not merely export medicines but offers alternative ways of thinking about health itself. In a world searching for sustainable solutions, the wisdom of ancient systems, when guided by modern science and global governance, may yet shape the future of well-being.
🧠 Mains Booster (Exam Fodder)
- Traditional medicine as preventive and promotive healthcare
- Linkage with SDG-3 (Good Health) and SDG-12 (Sustainable Consumption)
- WHO Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034
- Digital Public Infrastructure applied to health governance
- Health diplomacy and India’s soft power
- Ethical integration: regulation, evidence, and standardisation
- Planetary health and sustainable healthcare systems
✍️ Answer Writing Support
🔹 10-Mark Questions
Q1. Examine the significance of India hosting the Second WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine.
Suggested Answer (≈150 words):
India hosting the Second WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine underscores its emergence as a global leader in traditional and integrative healthcare governance. The summit builds on the Gujarat Declaration (2023) and aligns with WHO’s Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034, signalling institutional recognition of traditional medicine at the multilateral level. India showcased initiatives such as the My Ayush Integrated Services Portal, Ayush Mark, and the Traditional Medicine Global Library, addressing challenges of fragmentation, quality assurance, and knowledge protection. The event also strengthened India’s health diplomacy through regional cooperation and partnerships. Overall, the summit elevated traditional medicine from cultural practice to a regulated, evidence-informed component of global health systems.
Q2. How does traditional medicine contribute to sustainable healthcare?
Suggested Answer:
Traditional medicine contributes to sustainable healthcare by emphasising prevention, lifestyle correction, and harmony with nature. It relies on local resources, reduces dependency on resource-intensive pharmaceutical supply chains, and aligns health outcomes with ecological sustainability. Its focus on holistic well-being supports long-term health resilience rather than episodic treatment.
🔹 15-Mark Questions
Q1. Discuss the role of traditional medicine in reshaping global health governance in the context of the Second WHO Global Summit.
Suggested Answer (≈250 words):
The Second WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine reflects a significant shift in global health governance from a narrow biomedical focus to a more integrative and preventive framework. Traditional medicine, long marginalised as cultural or alternative practice, is now being institutionalised through WHO’s Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034. India’s leadership, manifested through initiatives such as the Ayush Mark and the Traditional Medicine Global Library, addresses critical governance gaps related to quality, evidence, and intellectual property. The summit also linked traditional medicine to planetary health, recognising its ecological orientation in an era of climate crisis. By embedding technology, digital platforms, and AI-driven research, the summit bridged tradition with modern science. Collectively, these developments position traditional medicine as a complementary pillar of global health systems, contributing to equity, sustainability, and resilience.
Q2. Critically analyse the challenges in integrating traditional medicine into mainstream health systems.
Suggested Answer:
While traditional medicine offers preventive and holistic benefits, its integration faces challenges such as lack of standardised evidence, regulatory fragmentation, and risks of misinformation. Over-commercialisation can erode authenticity, while excessive standardisation may ignore contextual diversity. Ethical integration requires robust scientific validation, transparent regulation, and safeguards against biopiracy. The WHO-India framework attempts to balance these concerns, but sustained institutional capacity and epistemic humility remain essential.
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