JOIN USA bill seeking to make the Bangalore-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (Nimhans) an institute of national importance was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.
The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences, Bangalore, Bill, 2010, empowers the institution to have greater academic autonomy on selecting the syllabi, confer degrees, increase its in take and grow its own manpower without the intervention of the Medical Council of India.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said once the Nimhans became national importance institution on the line of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, it can award own degrees and also have own administrative and financial powers.
Nimhans can develop patters of teaching in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in all its branches with a focus on mental health, neurosciences and allied specialities and start new courses in the emerging areas of mental health and neurosciences such as geriatrics, psychiatry, autism and spectrum disorder.
Nimhans will continue to give free treatment to people under below poverty line category even after it became national importance institution, he said. In the 135 acre campus, new helipad will be constructed to enable to bring serious patients by helicopter.