Odisha HRD

IIPH funding sources

A Rajya Sabha report gives some idea about the funding for IIPHs. Following is an excerpt from that report.

The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is a Public Private Partnership created for capacity building in Public Health Education, training and research. Considering the public health challenges that India faces, the demand for Public Health Professionals far exceeds the availability of adequately trained Public Health manpower. PHFI seeks to address this concern. Therefore, in the next 5-10 years, the PHFI would over the next 5-10 years help in creating around 2000 plus Public Health Professionals annually. This would be through establishment of world class Schools of Public Health  (IIPH); strengthening of existing Schools of Public Health in the country. PHFI would also help establish standards in Public Health Education by enabling the formation of independent accreditation system. 

The Government of India is contributing Rs. 65 Crore approximately one-third of the initial seed capital required for kick-starting the PHFI and for establishment of two Schools of Public Health. The remaining amount (approximately Rs.135 crore) is being raised from outside the Government, namely, Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation (Rs.65 cr.) and from high net-worth individuals. PHFI is managed by an independent Governing Board that includes 3 members from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfares viz. Secretary (H&FW); DG ICMR and DGHS. Shri T.K.A. Nair Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, Dr. M.S. Ahluwalia, Vice Chairman, Planning Commission; Smt. Sujata Rao, AS&PD, NACO, Ministry of Health; Dr. Mashelkar, DG CSIR are also members of the Governing Board. The presence of the officials from Government would ensure that the decisions taken in PHFI are in consonance with the objectives for which PHFI has been supported by Government of India. It is expected that all members of the Governing Board would ensure the functioning of the Foundation as a professional organization and with complete transparency.

In the yahoo article http://in.news.yahoo.com/070628/48/6hhzm.html it is mentioned that the cost of IIPH in Gujarat is 140 crores of which the Gujarat government will contribute 25 crores.

October 21st, 2007

PHFI and the new IIPHs (Indian Institutes of Public Health)

Following are extracts from the web pages of the Public Health Foundation of India (http://www.phfi.org/home.asp).

Background:

What is public health?

Public health has often been defined as a science dealing with the determinants and defense of health at the population level, while clinical medicine deals with multiple maladies and their remedies at the level of the individual patient.

Public health aims to elucidate and influence the social, cultural and economic determinants of health as well as to study and structure health systems as efficient channels for health services delivery. Public health thus is a discipline built on an academic tradition of inquiry involving research, teaching and professional practice to prevent disease and promote health in populations.

Why a foundation for public health?

As India experiences a rapid health transition, it is confronted both by an unfinished agenda of infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies and unsafe pregnancies as well as the challenge of escalating epidemics of non-communicable diseases. This composite threat to the nation’s health and development needs a concerted public health response that can ensure efficient delivery of cost-effective interventions for health promotion, disease prevention and affordable diagnostic and therapeutic health care.

These health challenges urgently require capacity building for health research, policy development and analysis, programme development and evaluation, health systems organization, models of health care financing and operationalized scientific research.Education and training in public health needs to be inter-disciplinary in content so that the pathways of public health action are multi-sectoral. Public health education must include subject areas like epidemiology, biostatistics, behavioral sciences, health economics, health services management, environmental health, health inequities and human rights, gender and health, health communication, ethics of health care and research. The interventions proposed need to be evidence based, context specific and resource sensitive.

About Us:

The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is a response to redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health. It is a public private partnership that was collaboratively evolved through consultations with multiple constituencies including Indian and international academia, state and central governments in India, multi & bi-lateral agencies and civil society groups in India.

The mission of PHFI is to benchmark quality standards for public health education; establish public health institutes of excellence based on these standards; to undertake meaningful public health research; and to advocate for public policy linked to broader public health goals.
…

Charter:

The PHFI is working towards building public health capacity in India by:

* Establishing 5 -7 new institutes of public health over the next 6 years;
* Assisting the growth of existing public health training institutions/departments and facilitating their evolution into major institutes of public health;
 …

Career:

Directors: Indian Institutes of Public Health (Hyderabad, Delhi and Gandhinagar)

The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is seeking three dynamic and enterprising public health experts as Directors of its upcoming Indian Institutes of Public Health (IIPH) at Hyderabad, Delhi and Gandhinagar. The first IIPH is to come up by July 2008 and the other two will begin operations in 2009.

Following are excerpts from an yahoo article that gives an idea of the cost involved in making an IIPH.

THE Gujarat government has decided to set up an Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) under the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) project, initiated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year.

This will churn out healthcare professionals and also to establish a strong national research network of public health, assisting in the growth of existing public health training institutions.

The State Cabinet, in its meeting on Wednesday, had cleared a proposal to allot 50 acres of government land for the Rs 140-crore IIPH at Chiloda near Gandhinagar. The institute has proposed a deemed university status.

An abridged version of an memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the PHFI and the state government had been signed during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January, 2006, for setting up of the institute.

The work on the institute is expected to begin in a month or so. When ready, the institute will offer degree courses, including a two-year master course in public health, one-year diploma in public health management and a three-year BSc course in public health.

For students from Gujarat, 10 per cent seats will be reserved for the Master Public Health (MPH) courses.

One-year diploma in public health (DPH) and other short-term courses will also be designed specifically for government servants and a subsidised fee structure for such candidates will be worked out.

… The official said the institute will also offer several short-term programmes in regard to in-service training in public health issues.

The setting up of the institute will certainly help the state in getting resource support and further strengthen health services for all sections of the population.

Of the estimated project cost of Rs 140 crore, Rs 80 crore will be used for construction, Rs 10 crore for learning resources and Rs 50 crore to cover operating deficit in the first 3 to 5 years.

Gujarat’s share will be Rs 25 crore, while the Public Health Foundation of India will provide the rest of the funds for the institute, the official added.

A newkerala.com article dated Sept 26th 2007 mentions that the fourth IIPH will be in Shillong, Meghalaya. A PIB release of last year mentions that there will be an IIPH in Mohali, Punjab. Hence, the five announced for IIPH will be in Hyderabad, Delhi and Gandhinagar, Shillong and Mohali.

84 comments October 21st, 2007

On the new NIPERs

Following is an excerpt from a report in http://www.siasat.com/.

After Hyderabad, the National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) would commence operations at Ahmedabad, Hajipur (Bihar) and Kolkata this year, Arun Ramanathan, Secretary, Department of Chemicals and Fertilizers, said.

NIPER at Hyderabad, the second in the country after Mohali in Haryana, was inaugurated on Friday on a sprawling 150 acres of the sick Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited (IDPL).

Full-scale operations

Mr. Ramanathan told reporters after the inauguration that the four institutes would take up to two years to commence operations on a full scale. The establishment cost of each of the institutes would be Rs. 200 crore but it would be lesser here as the existing building of the R&D centre of IDPL was utilised for accommodation.

Answering a question, the Secretary also said the Centre was yet to identify a consultant to determine the roadmap for successful functioning of NIPERS in public-private partnership.

In the case of Hyderabad, there was no need of their presence in the initial stages as the State Government had donated the land and the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) offered to be mentor organisation, providing its lab facilities and faculty, Mr. Ramanathan added.

Trained manpower

He also said the Centre decided to start six NIPERs in the country at Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Hajipur, Kolkata, Guwahati and Rae Bareli during the Eleventh Five Year Plan. They planned to provide highly trained manpower for pharma industry which recorded the second highest growth rate after Information Technology. Manpower, however, was a major bottleneck for the pharma industry.

… The Hyderabad NIPER commenced its academic activity with an intake of 40 students in three post-graduate courses.

A joint counseling of four of the new NIPERs, that were initially mentioned in 2006, is at http://www.niper.gov.in/distbu_seats.htm. Earlier this year Guwahati and Rae Bareli got added to the list.

October 21st, 2007

NISER Bhubaneswar: Tender Watch

Following are the latest tender related documents from http://www.dcsem.gov.in/Page/Tender.htm.

Earlier tender related news is at https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=214. Some of the links from that page do not work any more.

October 21st, 2007