The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal to declare the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, as an institute of national importance.
With the Cabinet also approving the introduction of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Bangalore Bill, 2009 in Parliament, the NIMHANS will be counted in the league of premier institutes such as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi; the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI), Chandigarh, and the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry.
This will facilitate the NIMHANS to develop patterns of teaching, with the flexibility to devise new courses, constantly evolving syllabi.
The institute will be able to take up new courses that are required and are not currently part of the Medical Council of India-approved courses.
Multidisciplinary institute
NIMHANS is a multidisciplinary institute for patient care and academic pursuit in the area of mental health and neuro sciences.Originally an asylum that came into being in the latter part of the 19th century, it was renamed Mental Hospital in 1925 by the erstwhile government of Mysore.This hospital and the All India Institute of Mental Health established in 1954 by the Centre were amalgamated on December 27, 1974, and formed the autonomous NIMHANS. The priority of the institute is ‘service, manpower development and research.'
On November 14, 1994, NIMHANS was declared a Deemed University by the University Grants Commission, with academic autonomy. The institute functions under the direction of the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, and the Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Ministry. Several national and international funding organisations provide resources for research.
