The Institute of Trans-disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (IHST), being set up in the campus of the Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Tradition (FRLHT) by National Innovation Council chairman Dr Sam Pitroda, will be inaugurated on January 19, 2014.

The key objective of the University is to lower costs and enhance  access, quality and reach of healthcare to millions. It would also facilitate creation of transformative knowledge and original Indian contributions, to the world of medicine and life sciences.

“We  believe this is the only university in the country with the focused mandate of bridging Indian shastras and western sciences. We will develop this University into an IIT class of an institution for the traditional health sciences of India,” said Dr Pitroda

“Institute of Trans-disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (IHST), University”, is a futuristic idea. The idea is about the modernization of global healthcare in 21st century by bridging, in an epistemologically informed way, the traditional health science and practices of India, with western biomedical sciences and technology. The aim of the University is to create a new Indian 21st century model for integrative healthcare, he added.

Darshan Shankar, vice chancellor, IHST pointed out that this University, is not being built de novo. It is being constructed upon 20 years of pioneering work of the FRLHT Trust, Bengaluru that was started by Sam and his team in 1993.

FRLHT has in its 20 years of existence demonstrated that it has the ability to visualize and implement in a focused manner ‘pioneering projects’ that ‘impact’ national policies and programmes in its chosen area of operations. Based on its track record in 2013 the Government of Karnataka decided to legislate FRLHT into a State Private University.

Dr Pitroda emphasized that India can be a world leader in this new  field of ‘Trans-disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology' because we have over the last century or so assimilated and achieved a reasonable degree of competence in biomedical and life sciences and we possess an incredibly rich and varied medical heritage of our own.