Quess Corp founder Ajit Issac donates Rs.105 cr to IISc to establish centre for public health

QuessCorp Chairman Ajit Isaac and family at-IISc

Staffing and human resource firm Quess Corp founder Ajit Issac and his wife Sarah Isaac have committed Rs. 105 crore to establish a Centre for Public Health at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

Ajit and Sarah have committed a sum of Rs. 105 crore towards setting up this Centre, which will be called the Isaac Centre for Public Health (ICPH), the IISc announced on March 17.

This philanthropic commitment to IISc comes a month after Mindtree cofounders donated Rs.425cr to establish a medical school.

“We are extremely pleased to announce that Ajit Isaac (Founder and Chairman of Quess Corp) and Sarah Isaac have committed Rs. 105 crore to establish a Centre for Public Health at the upcoming IISc Medical School,” IISc said.

The Centre will commence operation by 2024 and is expected to encourage aspirants to pursue careers in clinical research to develop new treatments and healthcare solutions driven by a bench-to-bedside philosophy. The new centre will be a part of the postgraduate Medical School soon to be established on campus.

“There is an acute need for India to have a world-class centre for clinical and academic research in public health to be able to make quicker and more impactful strides in realising the goal of quality healthcare for all. The proposed Centre will interface between all the departments of the IISc Medical School, and also other science and engineering departments of IISc in the context of public health research,” said IISc director Govindan Rangarajan.

The Centre will offer dual degree programmes such as MPH-PhD and MPH-MTech (Research). It will also provide funding for carrying out impactful research projects in public health, including bio-surveillance, digital health, and mobile-based diagnostics.

In addition, the funding will support international fellowships for students, scholarships, visiting chair professorships and endowed chair professorships.

“The Center will create a niche for health data science and analytics through close collaboration with the existing world-class computer science and data science departments at IISc, putting it on par with international counterparts like the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. We are grateful for such contributions from philanthropic leaders like Mr and Sarah Isaac who make it possible for us to move from aspirations to actually realising our goals,” Rangarajan added.

This philanthropic commitment to IISc comes a month after Mindtree cofounders donated Rs.425cr to establish a medical school.

IT firm Mindtree co-founders Subroto Bagchi and N.S. Parthasarathy, along with their spouses, had donated Rs.425 crore to IISc to establish an 800-bed multi-specialty hospital along with a postgraduate medical school.