Asian Institute of Public Health, AIPH, Bhubaneswar

The Global network project, funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) of USA- forged a collaborative partnership between renowned physicians and public health researchers from various academic institutions and universities of the United States of America and their eminent counterparts in India, during the early years of the first decade of this new millennium. During this collaborative research exercise, many astute minds felt the need for a public health institute in this region of the country for addressing the demand for and the gap in the supply of appropriately trained public health professionals. These trained personnel were and still are required in substantial numbers for delivering various public health programmes and services by the governmental agencies, its developmental partners and civil society organizations in the state as well in the entire region, which suffer from relatively unfavourable socio-economic and demographic circumstances leading to a greater burden of public health problems in this part of the country.  Unfortunately the numbers of public health institutes needed to educate professionals who can then work in this field are very much limited throughout the country, especially in this region. Thus the idea of Asian Institute of Public Health (AIPH) was born and it came up in Bhubaneswar in 2008, the capital city of Odisha, primarily to cater to this supply gap of skilled public health personnel in the state and the region, and also gradually expand its contribution to a larger audience in the rest of country as well as in the neighboring countries of South Asia, many of which share public health problems of similar nature and magnitude.