AIIMS Delhi director’s post up for grabs, 65 doctors apply

The group of 65 also included several women candidates. This is important considering all the three other Central government-run hospitals in Delhi currently have women directors at the helm.

The applicants

Of the 65 candidates who have applied for the position — the applications closed in the first week of August — 29 are from institutes other than AIIMS Delhi while 36 are from the institute itself.

A few doctors among the 29 not from AIIMS Delhi have previously worked at the institute. They include Dr Alok Thakar, who headed the National Cancer Institute in Jhajjar. He was associated with AIIMS before moving to Medanta Hospital. The other is Prof M Ashraf Ganie, who worked as professor of endocrinology at AIIMS and then as director at Sheri-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Jammu and Kashmir.

The list further included doctors from AIIMS in Raipur, Rajkot and Rishikesh. The others are from medical colleges such as Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute and King George’s Medical University, Chandigarh’s Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research and Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

Also among the contenders are vice chancellors of Odisha University of Health Sciences and Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University in Lucknow.

Importantly, the list included Dr Arti Sarin, who in 2024 became the first woman officer to take over as the Director General, Armed Forces Medical Services.

When it comes to the list of doctors from within AIIMS Delhi, several heads of departments have made it to the list. They include Dr Sudheer Gupta, who has headed the Forensics department for 14 years; Dr Manish Singhal, who has headed the Burns and Plastics department for 11 years and is its current head; Dr Uma Kumar, who set up the Rheumatology department and has been at its helm for 10 years; Dr Rakesh Yadav from the Cardiology department, who at present is the head of the institute’s emergency centre and Dr Ambuj Roy, professor at the Cardiology department.

Moreover, the list includes Dr Sanjay Rai, who heads the Community Medicine department at the hospital and was in-charge of the Covid-19 vaccine trials at AIIMS.

Among notable women applicants are Dr Neena Malhotra, who heads the Gynaecology department in AIIMS Delhi, Dr Manjari Tripathi, who heads the Neurology department and Dr Sheffali Gulati, who heads the Child Neurology department.

Application process

The post is open to anyone who has a postgraduate degree in medicine, surgery, or public health while also having a teaching experience of 10 years and professional standing of 25 years. The contenders, who should be 62 years old on the last date of application, must have practical and administrative experience.

A search and selection committee will choose the director from among the applicants. They may also choose to invite more applicants, something that had happened during the previous round of selections.

The committee is headed by the Union Health secretary and has as its member Principal Scientific Advisor Prof Ajay Sood, Secretary (Health Research) Dr Rajiv Bahl, Secretary (Biotechnology) Dr Rajesh Gokhale, DGHS Dr Loveneesh Krishna and former principal scientific advisor Dr K Vijay Raghavan.