Government appoints new chiefs for ICMR and AIIMS Delhi

Srinivas was a professor in the Department of Pediatric Surgery at AIIMS-Delhi before he joined ESIC Hospital and Medical College in Hyderabad in 2016

The Centre on Friday appointed senior WHO scientist Rajiv Bahl as the new director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) while picking up Hyderabad-based M Srinivasa as the next director of the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi.

Bahl, who currently heads Research on Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at the World Health Organisation, Geneva would be the new ICMR DG cum Secretary, Department of Health Research for the next three years.

Srinivas, currently the dean of ESIC Medical College and Hospital, Sanathnagar, Hyderabad would take over the directorship of AIIMS from Randeep Guleria for the next five years.

Bahl who joined the WHO in 2003 was trained as a paediatrician and was a doctor at AIIMS for 10 years before moving to the world health body.

Incidentally, former ICMR director general Soumya Swaminathan is currently the WHO Chief Scientist.