Arya Vaidya Pharmacy (AVP) chairman and managing director Dr P R Krishnakumar, who is also the chancellor of Avinashilingam Deemed University, passed away at a private hospital on Wednesday night. He was 69.
Born at Shoranur in Palakkad, he studied Ayurveda at Shoranur Ayurveda College and devoted his life in promoting Ayurveda. And he was instrumental in establishing an institute by the name of AVP Research Foundation (AVPRF) to conduct clinical, literary, field and drug researches and to train aspiring ayurvedic scholars.
Meanwhile, AVPRF launched the RUDRA clinical documentation program in 2003 to promote practice-based evidence in the field of Ayurveda. Dr Krishnakumar is a recipient of ‘Padmashri’ award in 2009 and he was honoured with the prestigious ‘Dhanwanthari Puraskar’ in 2016 for his contributions in the field of Ayurveda Education, Health and Community Services. And Kuvempu University honoured him with a doctorate in 2011.
Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with AYUSH practitioners’ across the country including Krishnakumar via video conference on providing alternative treatment for COVID-19 infection on March 28. The body was cremated at Nanjundapuram electric crematorium.
