Public Health Programme. The statutes have been approved by the Board of Studies and has received assent of the Chancellor of the University. Subsequently the Institute has requested the Government for permission to start the program. The Government has directed the University to conduct an inspection and certify our preparedness to offer the programme. Given our limited resources we had an understanding with LV Prasad Eye Institute, whose Chairman Dr. G.N Rao has graciously offered the use of LVPEI facilities at Kismetpur for the program. The Inspection committee of Dr NTR University of Health Sciences, recommended the case of the Institute and suggested for constitution of a separate board of studies for international courses. Accordingly, Govt has given permission in GOMs.No.173 dated 19-8-2009 to start Masters in Public Health (MPH). Subsequently we followed up with NTRUHS for amendment of the Statute to incorporate certain errata and for constitution of separate Board of Studies for International Courses. We received the assent and amendments to the statutes of Masters in Public Health course vide G O Ms. No 127, dated 19/05/2010.

        Further, IHS has supported the University in preparing the draft ordinance for constitution of Board of Studies for  International Program (BoS-IP) and sent to them on 19/06/2010 with a request to place before the Executive Committee for consideration. The approval for ordinance is awaited

(b) Fixation of Fee:

        The operational cost of the MPH program is estimated covering all the areas for 5 years keeping in mind the goal of developing a world class Masters Program in Public Health and it comes to INR 49,62,55,816 for the students intake as 15 in 1st year, 45 in 2nd year, 90 in 3rd year, 180 in 4th year and 360 in 5th year. This cost includes health system study tour for about two months with visits to major health system component institutions in India. The course also includes a field placement experience with community health care, hospital, health service or research organisations. With the above estimation, an application has been filed with the Govt of AP, on 6/4/10, requesting for fixation of fee as follows. We also proposed 20% of the seats reserved for students in AP in accordance of the eligibility criteria and sub-quotas to be fixed by the Govt. Accordingly the tuition fee for A P reserved seats has been proposed at 60% of the base fees applicable for All India students. For international students the tuition fee is proposed with a 40% markup from the base tuition fee applicable to domestic students. The markup is meant to offset the loss of revenue on account of AP Reserved seats.                 

         Govt has referred the proposal to Admission and Fee regulation Committee (AFRC). After examining the proposal AFRC sought certain clarifications on Test and Admission rules, status of IHS whether it is private un-aided or not. IHS has sent clarifications to Govt on 02/08/2010. We are yet to receive Govt approval.

(c) Announcement of the Course:

The following regulatory steps and approvals are required before announcement of the course.

 1.Approval of tuition fee or authority for fixation of the tuition fee  

        by the institute

  2.Approval of ordinance for constitution of Board of Studies for    

        International Programme (BoS-IP)

  3.Formation of specialised unit or division in the University       

       Registry to manage International Program.

     After the above regulatory approvals, the Institute will take steps for preparation of catalogue and announcement of the course. At least about nine months time is required for this purpose.

(d) MPH Grant Proposal:

              To start with the MPH program, we need to have initial investment to meet the expenditure on faculty and infrastructure. As given in the previous para the expenditure for 5 yeas is coming to INR 49,62,55,816. The revenue generation based on the fee proposed as per the students intake and the faculty cost on research is estimated to INR 41,25,70,000. As per the estimation, there is revenue shortfall for the first four years which comes to INR 12,11,14,984. Hence a grant proposal has been prepared with the title as "Developing Public Health capacity and Human Resources for health". A concept note has been submitted to the Ford Foundation. So far there is no response from them. Other sources are also being explored.

(e) IHS Land and Campus Development Plan

              Another positive development is that the state Government has allotted an extent of Ac16.00 in favor of Institute to build a world class College of Public Health and campus on payment of Rs 10.00 lakhs per acre. But there is a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) case before the Hon’ble High Court of AP. The Institute has approached a reputed advocate to represent its case. Advocate Sri Prakasha Reddy has kindly offered to represent the IHS case, pro bono. The IHS has to bear the incidental costs and the fees of Junior Advocate Sri P.Radheev Reddy. The case is still pending in the court. Parallely, we pursued for change of land use from recreational use zone to institutional use zone. HMDA has issued public notification on 20/09/2010 for calling objections for change of land use and there were no objections. IHS requested the MAUD through IHS letter dated 29/11/2010 to exempt the payment of development charges and we are yet to receive the approval.

2.  The Advanced Diploma in Health System Informatics 

    (ADHSI) Programe:

              Recognizing the success of the Institute’s Certificate in Health Intranet System Administration program, the State Board of Technical Education and Training (SBTET) have accredited the IHS for an Advanced Diploma course in Health System Informatics (ADHSI). This is a full time, 18 months course. The course consists of three semesters, two semesters each of 3 months duration and third phase comprising of an internship of one year. The third phase is devoted to a stipendiary internship and guided on the job training in appropriate organizations. We have deferred offering of the program in view of infrastructure constraints.

(c) Training Services:

          While training services continue to be a core area of activity of the Institute’s long term plans, we have deferred taking up training programmes for the time being. Training services require additional financial supplementation. Further, our infrastructure and human resources are committed to the research and consultancy projects in hand.

(d) Public Services:

1.Public Health Laboratory: Since, March 2004, the Institute is monitoring water quality at various points of water distribution system operated by the HMWSSB. These include mostly testing for residential chlorine and bacteriological contamination tests on water samples collected at reservoir points, tanker collection points, selected slum area, eateries and restaurants. IHS personnel also records their observations during the course of their sample collection, that could impact on water quality such as water leakages, damages to the distribution pipes, sewerage overflows with exact addresses and informs the HMWSSB for correction. Focus Group Discussions (FGD) are also being conducted in one or two randomly selected slums in a week to educate the residents about good hygiene practices and measures to prevent water contamination. Daily and monthly reports are furnished to the Metro Water Board (HMWSSB). In addition the laboratory is also collaborating with other research institutions by providing water quality testing services. Water quality testing services are also made available to general public. The laboratory has significantly increased its output and has also been a major source of revenue for the Institute during the current year. We submitted proposals for enhancement of samples based on the recommendations of international standards for drinking water on 06/03/10. HMWSSB has agreed the proposal for availing the IHS services for a period of one year from 1/7/2010 to 30/6/2011 for water quality monitoring of slums and reservoirs. An overview of revenue from water quality laboratory services is in Annexure- 8.

2.Library: The IHS has made concerted efforts to build its library services to support the Institutes academic programmes and serve the wider community with state of the art literature on various aspects of public health. However, in recent years the scope for proactive acquisition of bibliographic resources has been limited due to financial constraints. In addition, lack of space and a full time librarian is a key constraint in developing the library services

3.AP Health Institutions Database (APHIDB): We continued to maintain the database of Health Care Institutions (HCIs) in AP. Currently the database contains basic identifying information about 20,016 HCIs in the public, private for profit and nonprofit sector. The database is being updated whenever we get a chance of getting required information during the course of our research or consultancy. For example, the date and year of establishment of Primary Health Centers in Andhra Pradesh were updated to conduct sampling process which are atleast 5 years old as the criteria in Doctor Availability Study.