BENGALURU: Dr Pratima Murthy, head of Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru has been appointed as Director of the Institute for a period of five years. She will retire in March 2026.
Dr Murthy was awarded the WHO Regional Director's Special Recognition Award on 'World No Tobacco Day 2021' last month.
She has been appointed by NIMHANS on the approval of the central government as the full-term director of the institute of national importance after Prof and Head of Neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Dr Padma Srivastava could not assume the top office due to some technical reasons.
In the absence of a regular director, the Centre had appointed three acting directors from December till recently after the-then director Dr BN Gangadhar superannuated in December last year.
NIMHANS along with other mental health institutes has been playing a crucial role in identifying and reaching out to people on mental health and psycho social issues due to COVID since March 2020 on a national platform.