Yale HIV research centre in Chennai

[Guest guest]

Grant for HIV centre

The Yale University, America's leading research institution, plans to

open a research centre in Chennai for HIV prevention.

Dr. C. Levin, President of Yale University, America's leading

research institution, along with other distinguished high level Yale

faculty and administrators currently in India, visited the YRG CARE

hospital facility a few days ago and made the announcement.

Dr Levin said, " The Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS

(CIRA) has received a . US $2.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda

Gates Foundation to support HIV prevention research amongst high-risk

populations in India. "

The three-year grant will be used to conduct research on implementing

structural interventions among high-risk groups in the four southern

states of India with the highest HIV prevalence: Andhra Pradesh,

Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Structural interventions

promote public health by altering the context within which individuals

engage in health behaviors or make health-related decisions.

In HIV prevention, such interventions seek to alter social, economic,

political and normative factors that make up the risk environments for

HIV infection where individuals live and work

The Yale team will collaborate in this project with CARE, an

international field relief and development organisation, through its

India Country Office. The team will also work with other partners

receiving support as part of the Bill & . Melinda Gates Foundation's

Avahan initiative, conducting structural analyses of HIV risk and

assessing structural interventions for HIV prevention. In Chennai,

Yale's partners include YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and

Education (YRG CARE) and Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS).

India's National AIDS Control Organization estimates that at the end

of 2003 there were 5.1 million, 0.9 percent of the adult population,

living with HIV / AIDS in the country. It has also estimated that

there were 520,000 new HIV infections in 2003. As in many other

countries, the poor and socially marginalized in India bear the

majority of the HIV burden.

President Levin also laid the foundation for the new campus of the

Great Lakes Institute of Management (GUM). Over time, Yale and GUM

will develop faculty and student exchanges and engage in collaborative

research on management and strategy in South Asian markets, through

the Yale-GUM Center for Management Research for which a memorandum of

understanding was signed by President Levin and GUM. Professor Shyam

Sunder of the Yale School of Management serves as the honorary

research director of the institution and will visit periodically to

teach courses on finance and accounting.

The Yale delegation led by Dr Levin have been in India since 1st

January, 2005 and has visited New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai

In New Delhi, Dr Levin announced a new programme between Yale and

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) where JNU has been nominated as the

eighth site of Fox International Fellowships funded by ph Fox' 38

to offer exchange student programmes with Yale.

Yale is committing US $1 billion or Rs. 5,000 crore for investment in

science, engineering, and medicine in this decade. During this current

academic year, Yale will give nearly US $700,000 or Rs. 3.5 crore in

scholarships just to students attending Yale College from India. The

average scholarship given to a student attending Yale College from

India will be nearly US $32,000 per student per year or nearly Rs. 16

lakh. In all, for students from India at Yale, the university will

give scholarships and stipends totaling to more than US $3.2 million

dollars or Rs. 16 crore.

The 12-member Yale delegation visiting India has senior academicians

from different faculties including Unda Koch Lorimer, Vice President

and Secretary, Yale University; Dr. T.N. Srinivasan, Professor of

Economics and the Chair of the South Asian Studies Council; Dr.

Merson, Professor of Public Health and Qean of the School of

Epidemiology & Public Health; and Dr. Shyam Sunder, Professor of

Accounting, Economics and Finance. During their India visit, the Yale

delegation met many senior central and state government leaders and

captains of the industry.

RR

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