US grants $50,000 to Maharashtra university for medical education

Mumbai, Dec 19 (IANS) The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Friday awarded a grant of $50,000 (over Rs.2 million) to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS), Nashik.

The grant, the signing ceremony for which was held here Friday, will be used for arranging meets and technical workshops to expand and strengthen medical education in India and the US-India collaboration in life sciences, health sciences, public health and medical education.

US Consul General in Mumbai Paul Folmsbee and MUHS registrar Sunil H. Phugare signed the grant documents along with MUHS ViceChancellor Mridula Phadke and Payal Bhansal from the Department of Medical and Technical Education.

The HHS office in India has administered over $200 million over the past few decades for cooperative health projects in high priority areas like HIV/AIDS, polio, TB, malaria, leprosy and childhood and oral cancers

According to an American Centre announcement, through the initial small grants, HHS helped lay the foundation for long-term collaborations that benefit in the form of hundreds of Indian scientists trained in the US, dozens of collaborative programmes and thousands of personal and institutional relationships.

During 2008, the HHS committed nearly $30 million to US-India collaborations through several of its agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Through this HHS is developing new scientific knowledge, creating new technology for the development of vaccines, drugs, diagnostic tools and devices, and collaborating to control, prevent and eliminate diseases, with benefits flowing back to the people in both the countries, the release said.