Indian Institute of Public Health inaugurates new Gandhinagar campus
Sri.Vijaybhai Rupani, Honorable Chief Minister of Gujarat inaugurated the state-of-the-art new campus of the Indian Institute of Public Health – Gandhinagar (IIPHG), the western regional campus of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).
Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar (IIPHG) is the first of the five institutes setup by PHFI that was established in 2008. Recognized as the first public health university in Gujarat, the institute is a university established under IIPHG Act 2015 of Gujarat State.
Built in a sprawling 50-acre campus that was allocated by the government of Gujarat, the foundation stone was laid by the honorable Prime Minister of India, Shri. Narendra Modi (then Chief Minister of Gujarat) in 2007.
At the inauguration ceremony, Infosys co-founder N. R. Narayana Murthy said that India must invest much more in its public health if it wants to attract global investors into the country.
Murthy, who is also the chairman of the Public Health Foundation of India, said that the South Asian nation has the second lowest life expectancy in South East Asia.
According to Murthy, India invests 3.8% of its GDP in health and only 35% of which is the government’s contribution. He compared these figures with China, which invests 5.4% of its GDP and 56% as the government’s contribution, and the UK which spends 9.3% of its GDP and with government contributions at 84%.
Murthy said that institutes like the IIPH have a major role to play in building capacities of people involved in the health sector and its management.
According to Rupani, they have already earmarked Rs70 billion for the health sector this year and their primary aim is to strengthen the country’s existing health network with more capacity building. He also said the government wants to introduce better practices in health management with the help of institutes like IIPH.
The director of the IIPHG, Prof. Dileep Mavalankar, said: “I had gone to Johns Hopkins University in the US to earn a degree in public health several decades ago as there was no university in India.” He said today at one-fortieth of the cost, one can get a degree in public health at the new IIPH University.
Other eminent dignitaries present on the occasion included Sh. Nitinbhai Patel, Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat, Sh. Shankarbhai Chaudhary, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Gujarat, and PHFI Chairman Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, PHFI President Sh. Sudhir Mankad, Former Chief Secretary of Gujarat and Chairman, IIPHG Advisory Council and IIPHG Director Prof. Dileep Mavalankar, along with special invitees, state bureaucrats, faculty, staff and students of IIPH, Gandhinagar and PHFI.
