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The Third BIMSTEC Conference on Traditional Medicine Knowledge, Genetic Resources and Intellectual Property Rights opened in Goa on 16 September 2026 and concludes on 17 September 2026.
It is organised by the Ministry of Ayush with the All India Institute of Ayurveda, Goa as nodal institute, alongside the Second Meeting of the BIMSTEC Nodal Group on the same subject.
Delegates from all seven BIMSTEC members - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand - shared national policies and legal frameworks.
Sessions covered documentation of traditional knowledge, intellectual property rights, genetic resources, access and benefit-sharing, prior informed consent and community rights, with reference to WIPO and WHO initiatives.
The Ministry highlighted the BIMSTEC Task Force for Traditional Medicine and the proposed BIMSTEC Centre of Excellence in Traditional Medicine announced by the Prime Minister at the Sixth BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok in April 2025.
Regional grouping founded by the Bangkok Declaration of 6 June 1997, bridging South and Southeast Asia. Its Charter was signed at the Fifth Summit in Colombo on 30 March 2022 and entered into force on 20 May 2024. Work has been organised into seven sectors since 2021, with India leading the Security sector.
Apex autonomous institute under the Ministry of Ayush for Ayurveda education, research and clinical care; nodal institute for this conference.
Statutory body that regulates access to India's biological resources and associated knowledge and decides benefit-sharing, working with State Biodiversity Boards and village-level Biodiversity Management Committees.
UN specialised agency for intellectual property, whose Intergovernmental Committee on IP and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore produced the 2024 treaty on disclosure of origin.
Opened for signature at the Rio Earth Summit on 5 June 1992 and in force from December 1993, with its secretariat at Montreal. Its three objectives are conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits from genetic resources - the third is the parent idea of this conference.
Adopted under the CBD at Nagoya, Japan in October 2010 and in force from 12 October 2014. It provides the legal framework for accessing genetic resources through prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms, and for sharing the resulting benefits. India signed on 11 May 2011 and ratified on 9 October 2012.
India's implementing statute for the CBD. It creates a three-tier structure - the National Biodiversity Authority at Chennai, State Biodiversity Boards, and Biodiversity Management Committees at panchayat or municipality level. The Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023 (Act 10 of 2023, notified 3 August 2023) eased compliance for registered AYUSH practitioners and manufacturers while retaining the benefit-sharing regime.
Adopted at Geneva on 24 May 2024 after more than two decades of negotiation in the WIPO IGC. It requires patent applicants to disclose the country of origin or source of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge - a long-standing demand of developing countries including India.
Prevent misappropriation of Indian traditional medicine knowledge through wrongly granted patents abroad, by making that knowledge searchable prior art.
Key: Started in 2001 by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research with the Ministry of Ayush; draws on over 270 texts of Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Yoga and Sowa-Rigpa covering more than 5.2 lakh formulations. Foreign patent offices get access only under non-disclosure agreements, for search and examination purposes; about 14 patent offices have such access.
Regional hub for research into and dissemination of traditional medicine, announced by the Prime Minister at the Sixth BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok in April 2025.
Key: One of several BIMSTEC Centres of Excellence to be set up in India, alongside proposed centres for disaster management, sustainable maritime transport, and agricultural research and training.
Regional working mechanism to accelerate cooperation in traditional medicine across member states.
Key: Covers research, education, capacity building, standardisation, pharmacopoeial development, regulatory cooperation and exchange of knowledge; the Nodal Group meeting in Goa takes up documentation standards, expert networks and data management.
ABS governs who may use a country's genetic resources and the traditional knowledge attached to them, and on what terms. Access requires prior informed consent from the provider country or community, use is governed by mutually agreed terms, and the monetary or non-monetary benefits flow back to the source.
Simple Analogy: Permission first, terms in writing, and a share of whatever the discovery earns.
GS Paper 2 > International Relations > Regional Groupings Involving India
General Awareness > International Organisations and Current Affairs
Consider the following statements: 1. In India, the Biodiversity Management Committees are key to the realization of the objectives of the Nagoya Protocol. 2. The Biodiversity Management Committees have important functions in determining access and benefit sharing, including the power to levy collection fees on the access of biological resources within its jurisdiction. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: Both 1 and 2
With reference to 'Global Environment Facility', which of the following statements is/are correct?
Answer: It serves as financial mechanism for 'Convention on Biological Diversity' and 'United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change'
The permission a provider country or community must give before its genetic resources or associated traditional knowledge can be accessed - a core requirement of the Nagoya Protocol.
Knowledge already in the public domain that defeats a patent claim for novelty. The TKDL works by placing documented Indian traditional medicine in searchable prior art before foreign patent examiners.
The Himalayan system of traditional medicine recognised under AYUSH, and one of the systems documented in the TKDL alongside Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Yoga.