This is an archive article published on October 16, 2023
Govt revokes suspension of Professor James who served as director of IIPS
Professor K S James has now assumed the role of a senior research scholar at the Population and Just Societies Programme at the International Institute for Applied System Analysis in Austria, sources told The Indian Express.
Professor James had been placed under temporary suspension on July 28 in the backdrop of alleged irregularities being probed by the Union Health Ministry. (Photo: IIPS)
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Govt revokes suspension of Professor James who served as director of IIPS
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The Union Health Ministry has revoked the suspension of Professor K S James, who served as the Director of the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), and has additionally accepted his resignation, official notifications issued by the central government states.
Professor K S James, renowned as the country’s foremost researcher in the field of population studies, has now assumed the role of a senior research scholar at the Population and Just Societies Programme at the International Institute for Applied System Analysis in Austria, sources told The Indian Express.
James had been placed under temporary suspension on July 28 in the backdrop of alleged irregularities being probed by the Union Health Ministry. In October 2018, James was appointed as the Director of IIPS. Prior to joining IIPS, he was a Professor of Population Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He also served as Professor and Head of the Population Research Centre, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru.
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In a ‘brief note’, issued on July 29, the health ministry had said that ‘‘various complaints’ were received regarding “irregularities” in “recruitments, appointments, and compliance of reservation order”. To investigate these issues, a Fact Finding Committee was constituted on May 8 and later found “prima facie irregularities in 11 out of the 35 complaints received,” the brief note said. The health ministry said that during the “period of further process of investigation”, it was decided to suspend James. It had, however, highlighted that the suspension “is not a punishment but resorted to in specific circumstances to pave way for fair and free investigation”.
On October 11, the statistics division of the Union Health Ministry issued an order stating that the “competent authority” on “subsequent review”, was of opinion that in “view of material changes in the circumstances”, the suspension of James many to be “extender further”. On the same day, another order was issued by the Union Health Ministry. “Consequent upon tendering of the resignation….Prof. K S James…owing to personal grounds, the President is pleased to accept the resignation of Prof. K S James from the post of Director and Senior Professor, International Institute for Population Sciences,” the order states.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
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