New Delhi: Retaining the faculty in AIIMS and bringing them together were some of the major challenges that he faced during his five-year tenure as the director of the institute, R C Deka said.

"Retaining the faculty at AIIMS was a big challenge as many wanted to leave and go to corporate hospitals. That is why I had introduced many initiatives like the institute bearing the entire expenses of their travel abroad for conferences," Deka, who retired on September 30, told PTI.

"Further, I raised their incentives to 60,000 per year which is being given to them as a learning resource allowance," he said.

According to Deka, when he took charge in May, 2009, the faculty of AIIMS was divided into various groups.

"To bring them together, I engaged them in research activities like human genomics, immunogenetics with organ transplant programme, molecular medicine, structural biology and protein structure, aiming at new drug development," he said.

During the previous academic year, the faculty, scientists and students of the institute published over 1,800 research papers in national and international journals.

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