The Mysuru-based All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH), under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, is celebrating its 52nd anniversary on August 9.
To mark the occasion, several memoranda of understanding will be signed, besides the announcement of new tests, release of manuals, software applications and multimedia material.
Also, Ph.D. awardees, meritorious students and employees who retired from the service will be felicitated. AIISHian of the Year awards will be distributed to the staff members based on their work.
R. Venkat Rao, vice-chancellor, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, and SVYM founder R. Balasubramaniam will be chief guests at the annual day celebration on August 9 at 10 a.m. at the AIISH Seminar Hall in the Knowledge Park of main campus.
V. Srikanth, principal, Regional Institute of Education, Mysuru, will be the guest for the cultural programme which will be held at 6.30 p.m. at AIISH Gymkhana Auditorium, Panchavati campus. Asha Yathiraj, Professor of Audiology, AIISH will preside.
Journey so far
The institute was established in 1965 for human resource development, research, clinical services, and public education in the field of communication disorders. On the invitation of Government of India, Dr. Martin F. Palmer, Director, Institute of Logopedics, Wichita, Kansas, USA, visited India in 1963 and recommended setting-up an Institute of Logopedics in India at Mysore (now Mysuru). On August 9, 1965, the All-India Institute of Logopedics started functioning in Rama Mandira (a rented building) with Dr. B.M. Rao as its first director. On July 25, 1966, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the then President of India, laid the foundation stone of the institute building.
On October 2, 1966, an M.Sc. program in Speech and Hearing, the first of its kind in India, was introduced by the institute with affiliation to the University of Mysore. On October 10, 1966, the institute got registered as autonomous under the Society Registration Act, 1860, under the name ‘All India Institute of Speech and Hearing’. What started as a small institution in 1965 has today developed into one of the premier establishments across South Asia in the field of communication disorders, a release stated.
Recognition
The institute has been recognised as a Centre of Excellence in the area of deafness by WHO; a Centre for Advanced Research by UGC; a Science and Technology Institute by DST; a Centre of Excellence by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; a college with potential for Excellence by UGC and is accredited by NAAC with highest ‘A’ grade. The Institute also got ISO 9001:2008 certifications in 2014 and is in the process of obtaining ISO 9001:2015.
