Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences

What Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences does

The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) is an autonomous body under India's Ministry of Ayush that functions as the statutory apex research organization for Ayurveda and Siddha medicine. It coordinates research, drug standardization, clinical evaluation, pharmacovigilance, medicinal plant research, and literary preservation across a national network of 17 peripheral institutes including CARI, RARI, CSMCARI, NIIMH, NARIP, and ALRARI. Its operations span drug discovery through toxicological evaluation, multicenter randomized clinical trials (such as the Ayush Rasayana cluster RCT), manuscript digitization under the Gyan Bharatam Mission (3,000+ manuscripts), and standards-setting for pharmacopeial compliance across 42+ extra-pharmacopeial medicinal plants.

CCRAS operates a portfolio of digital platforms — the Ayush Research Portal, Ayur Prakriti Web Portal, NAMASTE Portal, and the E-Books Portal — alongside academic and training programs including the SPARK Fellowship, Post-Doctoral Fellowship, AYUSH PhD Scheme, PG STAR, and the ARMS (Ayurveda Research Methodology and Statistics) training program. It is staffed by 51-100 personnel at the headquarters level with broader institute staffing across the country, led by Director General Prof. Rabinarayan Acharya, and produces approximately 209 publications per year with 230 ongoing research projects and clinical services that have reached over 717,000 OPD patients.

As a government autonomous body, CCRAS does not operate a commercial revenue model; it is funded entirely through budgetary allocations from the Ministry of Ayush. Its go-to-market is institutional rather than commercial — research outputs are disseminated through peer-reviewed journals (JRAS, JDRAS, AYU), academic collaborations with bodies including ICMR, CSIR, ICAR, IITs, AIIMS, IISc, NIPERs, NIMHANS, and Jadavpur University, and public health programs including tribal healthcare and mobile camps. Patient and practitioner segments are served rather than sold to, and there is no pricing model or pricing transparency.

Name

Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences

Legal name

Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences

Website

https://ccras.nic.in

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

CCRAS is the apex government research body under India's Ministry of Ayush, coordinating Ayurvedic and Siddha research, drug standardization, clinical trials, pharmacovigilance, and manuscript digitization across 17 national institutes serving practitioners, researchers, and public health programs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Traditional Medicine Research

NAICS

Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171)

akta.pro primary industry

Ayurveda & Traditional Healing (Ayurvedic Retreats, Panchakarma, Herbal Therapies) (THAJAHAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Healthcare & Clinical Professional Development (CME/CE) (EDAGANAJ)

Keywords

• Ayurveda research
• Drug standardization
• Clinical research
• Pharmacovigilance
• Traditional medicine

Headquarters

HQ city

New Delhi

HQ country

India

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

CCRAS is the apex governmental research body for Ayurveda under India's Ministry of Ayush. It formulates, coordinates, develops, and promotes scientific research on Ayurveda, including drug standardization, clinical trials, pharmacovigilance, medicinal plant research, and preservation of ancient manuscripts, operating through a network of 17 peripheral research institutes across India.

Product overview

CCRAS (Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences) is an apex governmental body under the Ministry of Ayush, Government of India, serving as the coordinating and apex body for formulation, coordination, development, and promotion of research on scientific lines in Ayurveda. CCRAS operates primarily as a research governance organization rather than a product company. Its offerings include digital research platforms (Ayush Research Portal, Ayur Prakriti Web Portal, NAMASTE Portal), academic fellowship programs (SPARK Fellowship Scheme, Post Doctoral Fellowship, AYUSH PhD Scheme), research programs (CCRAS-AGNI, CCRAS PRAYATNA, ARMS Training, TradMed-CoE Centre), and publication services (Research Journals, Newsletter, Bulletin, IEC Publications, E-Books Portal, Book Publication Sale Portal). CCRAS manages approximately 230 ongoing research projects, has produced 209 research publications (April 2024-March 2025), with a total of 416 publications and 717,218 total OPD patients served (as of May 2025).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Ayush Research Portal
• Ayur Prakriti Web Portal
• NAMASTE Portal
• SPARK Fellowship Scheme
• Post Doctoral Fellowship (PDF) Scheme
• AYUSH PhD Scheme
• PG STAR
• CCRAS Programme for ARMS
• Centre for Evaluation of Traditional Medicine (TradMed-CoE)
• CCRAS Research Journals
• CCRAS Book Publication Sale Portal
• E-Books Portal
• IT Internship Program

Quantifiable outcome

• 717,218 Total OPD Patients served
• +3 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 20 May 2026Joint ICMR-CCRAS Phase III trial on Ayurvedic formulations for iron deficiency anemia, presented at 1st ICMR Annual Clinical Trial Meet 2026. Collaborative Delphi study to strengthen first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trials in India.
• Berhampur UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 February 2026MoU signed between CCRAS and Berhampur University for digitization and cataloguing of over 2,000 rare ayurvedic palm leaf manuscripts. Work expected to take 5-7 days for initial digitization, with selected manuscripts to undergo transcription and translation into modern language as part of national mission to document India's traditional knowledge systems.
• Sri Vadiraja Research FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFoundation initiated efforts to transliterate Ayurveda manuscripts written in Tigalari and Modi Kannada scripts found in coastal Karnataka under Gyan Bharatam Mission framework. Conducting two-week transliteration capacity-building workshop for 36 participants.
• Central Sanskrit UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerProvides guidance and support for manuscript transliteration workshops under Gyan Bharatam Mission. CCRAS has collected more than 3,000 manuscripts over past four years with university collaboration.
• Jadavpur UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRs 9.7-crore national project for toxicological and safety evaluation of traditional medicine systems led to development of Centre for Evaluation of Traditional Medicine (TradMed-CoE) at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, inaugurated by CCRAS director-general.
• Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (ITRA)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerITRA concluded national conference at Jamnagar adopting 'Jamnagar Declaration' with input from CCRAS experts, proposing Mercury Banks and global safety standards for ayurvedic mercurial formulations. Framework to shape future government guidelines.
• 17 CCRAS Institutes (Multicenter Network)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulticenter, open-label, cluster randomized controlled trial conducted through 17 institutes under CCRAS to assess Ayush Rasayana A and B on quality of life in 720 older adults aged 60-75 years. 686 of 760 enrolled participants (95.3%) completed the study.
• CSIR, ICAR, NIPERs, IITs, AIIMS, IISc, NIMHANScoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic collaborations supporting drug discovery, clinical research, neuroscience, public health studies, and literary research. Promotes integrated evidence-based framework for Ayurveda.
• NISER BhubaneswarminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNote: This MoU is between NISER and CCRH (Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy), not CCRAS.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH): Autonomous sister research council under the same Ministry of Ayush, with parallel structure (multiple peripheral institutes, clinical research, drug standardization, pharmacovigilance) but focused on Homoeopathy. Directly comparable in mandate, governance, funding model, and institute network.
• Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM): Sister apex research council under Ministry of Ayush for Unani medicine. Operates the same institutional model — peripheral research institutes, clinical trials, drug standardization, literary research — making it a direct structural peer to CCRAS.
• Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS): Sister research council under Ministry of Ayush governing Siddha medicine research. Shares identical governance template (autonomous body, peripheral institutes, government budgetary funding) and a comparable research portfolio focused on a single traditional system.

Broad incumbents

• Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (ITRA), Jamnagar: Premier national Ayurveda university and research institution where CCRAS's DG previously served as Professor and Head. An established academic-research incumbent that delivers undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral Ayurveda training alongside drug-standardization and clinical research comparable to CCRAS.
• National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA), Jaipur: Deemed university under Ministry of Ayush with significant Ayurveda research output alongside education. Comparable as a long-standing government Ayurveda research-and-training body with clinical, pharmacological, and literary research programs.

Emerging players

• All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), New Delhi: Newer apex tertiary-care Ayurveda hospital-and-research institute under Ministry of Ayush. Runs clinical research, postgraduate training, and patient care analogous to CCRAS's peripheral institutes but with a more clinical-care orientation.

Others

• Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR): CCRAS's principal biomedical collaborator — joint Delphi studies and Phase III trials are underway. Comparable as India's apex publicly funded clinical-research body, but for allopathic medicine rather than Ayurveda; relevant as the upstream mainstream-medicine counterpart that legitimizes CCRAS evidence.
• Ministry of Ayush, Government of India: CCRAS's parent ministry that funds and governs it. Directly comparable in policy-setting scope (pharmacopoeia standards, international cooperation) but operating at policy/regulatory level rather than research execution.
• Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine & Homoeopathy (PCIM&H): Joint pharmacopoeial authority for AYUSH systems under Ministry of Ayush. Directly comparable as the standards-setting partner that consumes CCRAS's drug-standardization research outputs into official Ayurvedic pharmacopoeias.
• Jadavpur University (TradMed-CoE host): Hosts the Rs 9.7 crore Centre for Evaluation of Traditional Medicine funded by CCRAS. Comparable as a translational research partner providing toxicological and safety evaluation infrastructure that CCRAS itself does not operate in-house.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CCRAS_MoAyush
• Facebookfacebook.com/CCRAS.MoAYUSH
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/central-council-for-research-in-ayurvedic-sciences

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Subsidiaries7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences