The announcement comes on the same day as Dr M Srinivas being appointed the director of AIIMS-New Delhi. (Representative/ File)Dr Rajiv Bahl, who currently is with the World Health Organisation, was on Friday appointed as Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Secretary of the Department of Health Research for a period of three years.
The announcement comes on the same day as Dr M Srinivas being appointed the director of AIIMS-New Delhi.
Bahl is currently the Head of Research on Maternal, Newborn Child and Adolescent Health-cum-Newborn Unit Head, Department of Maternal Newborn Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing, at the WHO in Geneva.
“The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Dr Rajiv Bahl… to the post of Director General, ICMR-cum-Secretary Department of Health Research for a period of three years, with effect from the date of assumption of charge of the post or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” according to an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training.
His predecessor, Dr Balram Bhargava’s extended tenure as Director General of ICMR and Secretary of the Department of Health Research ended in July.
Dr Bahl is a paediatrician by training and studied public health as well before joining the WHO in 2003. Before that he worked as a senior researcher at the ICMR Advanced Centre for Diarrheal Diseases Research at the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS-Delhi).