New-age library set to protect age-old yoga knowledge

In response to more than 1,000 patents of yoga postures and Ayurvedic medicines in the US and Europe, the health ministry is preparing a 30-million-page digital library documenting the country's traditional knowledge.

"The 30-million-page digital library is being made to ensure that Ayurvedic medicines, yoga asanas, Unani and Sidha are not patented anywhere else in the world," an official said.

The traditional knowledge digital library (TKDL), which will be ready by December 2006, is being prepared at an estimated cost of Rs 10 crore.

The government is also finalising non-disclosure agreements with patents offices in the US, Europe and Japan to ensure that through access to the digital library, patenting of such traditional knowledge will be avoided in other countries.

"Patents offices in the US and the EU will have access to the TKDL which will help patents examiners cross-check whether an application for a patent is an original innovation or a copy of what already exists in other parts of the world, in this case India," an official said.

The National Institute for Science Communication and Information Resources is preparing the document, based on ancient transcripts in Sanskrit and Persian.

The issue of data protection and enforceability of patents based on traditional knowledge is currently being addressed by the ministry of health in consultation with the commerce ministry.

"The biggest challenge for the digital library will be enforcement and data protection to ensure that similar molecules or postures are not patented," the official added.

Of the 30 million pages, 10 million have already been digitised and 54,000 formulations of Ayurveda and 45,000 formulations of Unani have been placed in the library.

Next on the agenda is digitisation of 10,000 formulations of Sidha and 1,500 yoga postures.

The e-document will be available in six languages "" English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Japanese.