NEW DELHI: Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, and T.K.A. Nair, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, have joined the governing board of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). Mr. Nair will be the ex-officio member.

At the second board meeting of the foundation here on Thursday, chairman Rajat Gupta said the Government had also approved the deputation of Prof. Srinath Reddy as PHFI president for a five-year term.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has already announced a one-time grant of Rs. 65 crore towards the initial corpus of the foundation, which seeks tostrengthen the public health system by training health workers at various levels and reaching out to the remotest areas.

Its immediate goal is to open the first school of public health (Indian Institute of Public Health) by July 2008. The foundation has undertaken innovative measures to build a strong faculty pool, for which it has entered into academic partnerships with the Association of Schools of Public Health (U.S.) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. These will soon be extended to include partnerships with institutions in other parts, especially in developing countries.

Partnership

The partnership entails the sponsored candidates to undertake courses in Master's in Public Health and doctoral programmes. This will help in applying technical knowledge of these programmes to India-relevant issues. PHFI aspires to create over the next 3-5 years a group of 100 permanent faculty members with a deep understanding of India-relevant issues.

According to Prof. Reddy, biodata has been received from 130 experts across the world, who are interested in associating themselves with these institutes.

Development programme

The foundation has selected 14 candidates from multidisciplinary fields for faculty development programme. It intends opening open five centres across the country. Offers have been received from private institutions and State Governments including West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, Punjab and Jharkhand.

While the target is to strengthen the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the foundation aims at training 10,000 health workers every year for being sent to remote areas.

``We will try to train the people already working in these areas, instead of sending people against their wish, to ensure that they serve the purpose,'' Mr. Gupta said.

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