Tamil Nadu’s yearning for an AIIMS-type institution, as reflected in Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay’s recent request to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for establishing a second AIIMS, is nothing new.

In 1989, the DMK government had taken over the privately-established Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute (popularly called SRMC) in Porur, Chennai. [The institution is now a deemed to be university under the name Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research – SRIHER.] After the take over, the government had established the Tamil Nadu Arasu Medical Science and Research Institute (TAMARAI).