Selection-cum-search panel shortlists 3 names for AIIMS director post

New Delhi: A selection-cum-search panel headed by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has shortlisted three names for the post of AIIMS director which will be placed before the Institute Body, the top decision-making body of the institute, on March 29.

Once approved by the Institute Body, the names will be sent to the Appoints Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by the prime minister, for final assent. The three names shortlisted are Dr Nikhil Tandon, head of the department of endocrinology at AIIMS, Dr Rajesh Malhotra, chief of AIIMS Trauma Centre and the head of the department of orthopaedics and Dr Pramod Garg, a professor in the gastroenterology department at the institute.

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Apart from Rajesh Bhushan, the four-member search-cum-selection committee tasked with shortlisting names for the AIIMS director's post include Secretary of Department of Biotechnology Rajesh S Gokhale, Principal Scientific Advisor to the government K Vijay Raghavan, and Delhi University vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh.

They held a meeting on Tuesday and shortlisted three names. "These three names will now be placed before the Institute Body of AIIMS on March 29 for approval before being sent to the ACC headed by the prime minister for final approval," said an official source.

The tenure of New Delhi AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria, which was set to end on March 24, was extended by three months. He was appointed to the post on March 28, 2017. "He will complete his tenure on 24.03.2022. President, AIIMS, is pleased to extend his tenure with effect from March 25, 2022, by three months or by the time a new director is appointed, whichever is earlier," an office memorandum by the hospital on March 22 said.

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Around 32 candidates had applied for the post of director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi. They included 13 doctors from AIIMS as well as ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava.