Guj to have Rs 140 cr Indian Institute of Public Health

Gandhinagar, July 31 (UNI) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the Indian Institute of Public Health, a project worth Rs 140 crore, in Gandhinagar on August 2.

The Gujarat government will set up the institute in association with Public Health Foundation of India.

''This institute will be one of its kind in the country, which will produce researchers in the health sector,'' Public Health Foundation of India president and former head of cardiology department of Indian Institute of Medical Science Dr Shreenath Reddy told reporters here today.

''Public Health Foundation of India is an autonomous body that was inaugurated by Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh on March 28, 2006, in New Delhi. Nationally and internationally famous officials from science and technology sectors and industrialists who include McKinsey&Company Managing Director Rajat K Gupta, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Nobel laureate Dr Amartya Sen, China Medical Board president Dr Linken Chen, World Health Organisation (WHO) Assistant Director General Dr Imothi Ivance and Director General of National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) Sujitha Rao are members of the foundation,'' said Dr Reddy.

According to Gujarat Health Minister Ashok Bhatt, this institute will be the second in the country after Hyderabad, in which seminars and various health programmes would be organised.

''Under the leadership of Chief Minister Narendra Modi this instittue will become an international centre for training experts in public health centre,'' Mr Bhatt added.

UNI