Bangalore : The Institute of Health Management Research, Bangalore (IIHMR-B), a premier Institution in healthcare management in India, inaugurated the academic year and welcomed the PGDHM batch of 2018-2020 during the student induction ceremony at its campus.

The Chief Guest and Guest of Honour for the event were Smt. Veena Rao, Advisor – Karnataka Comprehensive Nutrition Mission and Dr Asish Kumar Satapathy, Regional Team Leader-South India, WHO. The special guests of the event were Dr. G. Giridhar (Governing Board Member of IIHMR-B)  and Major Gen. Dr. Manchanda.

The ceremony was inaugurated with a welcome address by IIHMR Director, Dr. Usha Manjunath in which she highlighted the role of IIHMR in building future healthcare managers. In her address to the gathering, she briefed about the new batch profile. The new batch has 51% girls and 49% boys and also 42% of students with a medical background and the rest comprising of arts and technology background. This batch also comprises of 8 army officers. The diverse batch represents 15 states of India including regions from the north-east.

Delivering the keynote address Smt. Veena Rao, Advisor – Karnataka Comprehensive Nutrition Mission in her speech highlighted the transitioning phase in the health-care industry and implored the young audience to critically evaluate the various government initiatives. She said that India now, has become a country with diseases of poverty and affluence. She also emphasized the fact that malnutrition and information gap are the factors affecting health, which needs deeper analysis.

Dr Asish Kumar Satapathy, Regional Team Leader-South India, WHO, who stressed on Universal Health Coverage as a global agenda of the WHO. He reflected on the increasing need of skilled manpower in the health-care industry and encouraged students to learn and incorporate the required skills. He ended his talk with two mantras which he insisted students to follow – hard-work and dream.