NEW DELHI, January 4, 2016 (Economics Times): The newly-formed AYUSH Ministry hogged limelight in 2015 as it successfully organized the first-ever International Day of Yoga during which two Guinness world records were achieved. The Department of AYUSH which was earlier under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was upgraded to a full- fledged ministry on November 9, 2014 with an aim to step up education and research in Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy and expanding the reach of these medical systems in public. The Ministry, headed by Shripad Naik, kept itself busy in 2015 with the International Day of Yoga on June 21. Massive celebrations were witnessed at Rajpath where Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself performed yoga in the presence of thousands of people including ministers, bureaucrats, foreign delegates, school children, NCC cadets and host of others.
Two Guinness World Records were achieved, the largest yoga lesson involving 35,985 participants and maximum number of nationalities (84) participating in a single yoga lesson. Outside India, the first IDY was celebrated in all countries except war-torn Yemen with the events organized by the Ministry of External Affairs in association with Ministry of AYUSH and various yoga organisations. Simultaneously, a two-day international conference on Yoga for Holistic Health was also organized which witnessed the participation of around 1300 delegates from India and other countries.Apart from this, the Ministry of Culture has filed nomination to inscribe Yoga as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity under UNESCO.
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