After offering the one-year programme in public health management for government officials, the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar (IIPHG) is now looking to expand its purview to non-government officials as well.
IIPHG is set up under the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), a public private partnership which aims to strengthen training, research and development in area of public health.
While currently the programme has around 25 candidates from the government sector, the institute is looking at increasing the seat capacity by inducting non-government candidates as well. Moreover, while the government candidates are sponsored through National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), IIPHG is looking for sponsors for funding non-government candidates.
"We are in talks with certain NGOs and other institutions for funding additional participants from the non-government sector for the programme. For each participant, we are looking for Rs 2.25 lakh sponsorship and intend to induct additional 10-15 such candidates," said Dileep Mavalankar, dean - academics at IIPHG. In all, the institute intends to raise over Rs 2.25 crore through NGOs and other institutions as sponsorships.
Apart from the one year programme in public health management, IIPHG is also planning to introduce more post graduate programmes, including emergency management. With Gujarat already running the 108 emergency services successfully through EMRI, IIPHG intends to create more professionals skilled in emergency management.
Meanwhile, the institute, which has been running from a makeshift campus, also plans to get its own campus in next couple of years. Currently, IIPHG is running from a makeshift campus at the Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research campus in Ahmedabad. However, the government has allotted a 50 acre land near Chiloda-Palaj road where the institute's own campus would come up.
According to Mavalankar, construction work on the new campus is expected to begin by September 2011 and is likely to be completed in one and half years. The new campus of the institute is being set up at an investment of Rs 140 crore.
