Bengaluru: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare J.P. Nadda promised Rs. 200 crore for the proposed north campus of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS).
His assurance came on Tuesday at the 21st convocation of NIMHANS, during which 168 students received their degrees.
Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar, who was the chief guest, urged State Minister for Medical Education Sharanprakash Patil to allot 100 acres for the north campus. "If that is done, Health Minster J.P. Nadda and me will approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a request for Rs. 200 crore in the coming budget," he said. He would try to ensure that the Mental Healthcare Bill is passed in the coming budget session of Parliament.
A.S. Kiran Kumar, chairman of ISRO, who was the guest of honour, spoke on how NIMHANS was one of the institutes using telemedicine to take healthcare to remote villages.
Toppers speak
Of the students who were awarded degrees, 15 were post-doctoral fellows, 28 were awarded for PhD, 28 for super-specialities and 66 students from different streams of study, including M.Phil. (neuro-sciences). Ten students were awarded for meritorious performance in their streams.
Gopika G.G., who received the Dr. R.N. Moorthy Award for scoring the highest marks in M. Phil Psychiatric Social Work, said that she wants to help people facing mental health issues. "Currently, I'm working in a mental health trust in Kerala, which is trying to take mental healthcare to economically backward communities," she said.
The Dr. R.N. Moorthy Award for scoring the highest marks in M. Phil Neurophysiology went to Subhadeep Dutta Gupta, whose research was on reducing anxiety in rats. "I would like to continue my research in this topic on other animals," he said. He plans to continue his research at NIMHANS and later, in universities abroad.
