TISS Prof, Dr Harshad Pandurang Thakur appointed NIHFW Director

New Delhi: Harshad Pandurang Thakur has been appointed as the Director of National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, an official order said on Wednesday.

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The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appointed him for a period of five years.

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"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal for appointment of Harshad Pandurang Thakur, Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai to the post of Director, National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW)... on direct recruitment basis for a period of 05 years," the order said.

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The NIHFW, an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, acts as an apex technical institute as well as a think tank for the promotion of health and family welfare programmes in the country.

Dr. Harshad P. Thakur completed his MBBS and MD (Preventive and Social Medicine - PSM) from Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai. He also completed Diploma in Business Management (DBM) from Wellinkar Institute, Mumbai University in 1997. He also worked in PSM Dept. at KEM hospital for almost 7 years. He was Lecturer from 1st October 1993 till 18th July 2000 and later on Associate Professor from 19th July 2000 to 31st October 2000. He joined TISS on 1st November 2000 as Associate Professor / Reader. He became Professsor at TISS from 1st November 2008.

He has been working with the School of Health Systems Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) for the last 15 years. He was the chairperson for the Centre for Health Policy, Planning & Management (CHPPM) from July 2008 to June 2010, and the chairperson for the Centre for Public Health (CPH) from June 2010 to March 2015. He started a MPH (Master’s of Public Health) program with a specialization in Social Epidemiology in June 2008 at TISS. He has expertise guiding research projects of PhD, M.Phil, MPH, MHA and DHA students at TISS.