The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati will launch a School of Health Sciences and Technology. The new school will offer MTech and PhD programmes in Health Sciences and Technology and seeks to boost cutting-edge research in therapeutics, diagnostics, stem cells, public health, and health data analytics, a IIT Guwahati statement said. The new school at IIT Guwahati is set to be launched in collaboration with Mehta Family Foundation (MFF), Houston, Texas, USA, to establish the ‘Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology.’ This new school at IIT Guwahati will commence academic activities during the current academic year.

An agreement has been signed virtually on May 14 between both parties in the presence of Professor Ajay K Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India; Dr Rajiv I Modi, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Guwahati, and Chairman and Managing Director, Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd; Rahul Mehta, CEO, Mehta Family Foundation; Professor Ananth Grama, Professor Rajiv K. Gupta, Professor Shankar Subramaniam, Professor TG Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, Professor SK Kakoty, Deputy Director, IIT Guwahati, and other deans as well as faculty members of IIT Guwahati.

Addressing the event, Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India, said “I congratulate IIT Guwahati and the Mehta Family Foundation for this remarkable initiative. At this juncture, I can clearly foresee that the School of Health Sciences and Technology would host a number of modern academic curricula, centers of excellence, incubators, and research laboratories for the advancements in multi-disciplinary research and education, which is presently needed in the country.”

The Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology has launched a new Master’s and PhD programmes in Health Sciences and Technology from this academic year. The first batch of 20 MTech students in the stream of Biomedical Science and Engineering will be admitted to IIT Guwahati through GATE 2022.

Highlighting the initiatives to be taken up by the New Centre, Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, said, “The institute profoundly thanks the Mehta Family Foundation for their generous support towards establishing this second new programme on Health Sciences and Technology at IIT Guwahati, which will inculcate cutting-edge education and research in the areas related to therapeutics, diagnostics, prosthesis, implantation, bioinformatics, molecular biology, regenerative medicine, stem cells, public health, and health data analytics, among many others.

The impact of such translational education and research is rather far-reaching since they will not only fulfil the demands of having sufficiently qualified postgraduates in the service of the nation but also catalyze the research output matching the global standards.”