Kasturba Hospital Wins FICCI Healthcare Excellence Award 2026 for Community Engagement
Kasturba Hospital, Manipal – the teaching hospital of Kasturba Medical College and a unit of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) – was conferred the Excellence in Community Engagement award at the 18th FICCI Healthcare Excellence Awards 2026. The award, instituted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), recognises the hospital’s Manipal Matri‑Amrit Milk Bank, the first human breast‑milk bank in the Udupi‑Manipal region.
The award ceremony took place at FICCI’s New Delhi office on 27 October 2026, where Member of Parliament Dr Shashi Tharoor presented the accolade. It was received on behalf of the hospital by Dr Sudhakar Kantipudi, Chief Operating Officer – Teaching Hospitals, MAHE, and Dr Avinash Shetty, Medical Superintendent, Kasturba Hospital.
In addition to the Community Engagement award, the hospital entered two other initiatives that each secured a place among the top three finalists out of a total of 157 nominations received by FICCI. The Hospital‑Wide CLABSI Prevention Programme, aimed at reducing Central Line‑Associated Bloodstream Infections through evidence‑based multi‑bundle interventions across ICUs, HDUs and wards, was a finalist for Excellence in Patient Safety. The training programme “Everyone is a Hero, Every Second Counts”, which builds a life‑saving workforce through universal CPR and emergency‑response training, was a finalist for Excellence in Training and Skill Development Initiative of the Year.
The Manipal Matri‑Amrit Milk Bank collects, screens, pasteurises and stores breast milk voluntarily donated by lactating mothers. During the reporting year it supplied over 538 litres of donor milk to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, supporting 660 newborns whose mothers were unable to breastfeed. The bank sourced milk from 493 voluntary donor mothers, an increase from the previous year’s 430 newborns served with 300 litres of milk. No adverse events attributable to the donor milk were recorded, and regular counselling programmes helped build community trust in milk donation.
Dr H. S. Ballal, Pro Chancellor of MAHE, praised the recognition, stating that the award reflects the belief that healthcare must extend beyond hospital walls and that every donated drop is a “gift of life”. Dr Sharath K. Rao, Vice Chancellor of MAHE, highlighted the hospital’s combined focus on clinical excellence and societal commitment, noting that the triple top‑three placement demonstrates the depth of work across community outreach, patient safety and workforce training.
About Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE)
MAHE is an Institution of Eminence deemed university offering more than 400 specialisations across health sciences, management, law, humanities, social sciences, technology and science. The university operates campuses in Manipal, Mangalore, Bengaluru, Jamshedpur and Dubai. In 2020, the Ministry of Education awarded MAHE the Institution of Eminence status, and it currently ranks third in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025 rankings.
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