DONATION: Rs 2.25 crore S. CHARLES (extreme right): Alumnus of the CMC, Ludhiana, the US-based oncologist (seen here with members of the CMC's mobike ambulance service) has raised $2.5 million for his alma mater

The library does not have a research journal dated later than 1991, the lecture theatres are dingy and the hostels have sub-human living conditions. Add to these a demoralised faculty and even an imminent de-recognition by the Medical Council of India. This is not the Government Medical College (GMC) that Satwant Singh knew. This is not the century-old institution that propelled him to study medicine in Cincinnati, US. This is certainly not the place they once called the Harvard of India.

When US resident Satwant Singh flew to Punjab in March, revamping the GMC was his mission. The 62-year-old professor of medicine spent a week working out the details for implementing the "Amritsar Project", conceived by the 900-member Amritsar Medical and Dental Alumni Association of North America (AMDAANA) at its annual get-together at the Niagara Falls in 2003. In the first phase, the AMDAANA is committed to refurbishing the five lecture theatres with state-of-the-art audio-visual aids by the end of 2004.

The AMDAANA is not an exception. Examples of affluent NRIs making cash contributions to their alma maters or to schools and colleges in their native places are not uncommon in Punjab, as is evident from Toronto-based dentist Harvansh Singh Judge's recent gesture, willing Rs 8 crore to his alma mater, the Panjab University, to establish a dental college in his name.

With a 7,000-strong NRI base of medical professionals, Punjab's oldest colleges-the Christian Medical College (CMC) at Ludhiana and the government-run colleges at Amritsar and Patiala-may well get the facelift of a lifetime. "There is a strong desire among the rich alumni to help," says Kiranjeet Kaur, principal, GMC, Patiala. Her address to an alumni meeting at Baltimore four years ago prompted instant offers of donations.

DONATION: Rs 50 lakh R. SINGH (right): Head of the Indian chapter of the GOMCO addresses students of the Patiala GMC in the auditorium that was renovated with donations from NRIs

But what has seemingly spurred the new-found "let-us-pay-back" credo is the trail-blazing story scripted by the CMC's expatriate alumni. Faced with a financial crunch, the CMC was gasping for breath. Bed occupancy in the hospital had dwindled to less than 30 per cent and the losses mounted to the extent that auditors gave it six months for closure. The NRI alumni pitched in, taking over the CMC's management. "It was like God calling," says Silas Charles, graduate of the 1974 batch and Ohio-based radiation oncologist, who was appointed director. The strategy clicked. Not only did the NRI alumni infuse half-a-million dollars (Rs 2.25 crore) but Charles tapped more than $2.5 million as charity grants from abroad and from local industrialists to rebuild the institution.

The CMC's NRI alumni have been taking turns to spend time at their alma mater. There are 34 of them on the visiting faculty programme, lending expertise to build super-speciality centres in neurology and orthopaedics. "For the past five years, the CMC has been my only vacation," says Charles. Another alumnus, Sewa Singh Legha, a Houston-based oncologist, has been engaged in building the research faculty.

Adds CMC Medical Superintendent Rajiv Kapoor: "We pegged the revival efforts to a corporate approach." The results: bed occupancy has risen to 70 per cent and income has tripled to Rs 62 crore. "We are swinging," says Charles. The alumni donations have helped them set up a trauma centre and a Rs 40 lakh Mobike Ambulance Retrieval Service. Charles' next plan: to raise Rs 8 crore from the alumni, with a dollar-for-rupee matching contribution, to build an auditorium and a paediatric hospital.

S. SINGH (extreme right): The US-based professor of medicine interacts with students of his alma mater GMC, Amritsar, during a visit aimed at revamping it

While the overseas alumni of the state-run medical colleges are keen to take a leaf out of the CMC model, there are hurdles. They are wary of routing the donations through government channels. At Patiala the GMC Alumni Association (GOMCO) has undertaken to set up a Rs 6 crore trauma centre. The proposal, approved by the alumni at their meeting in New York in 2001, has been hanging fire because the Government is not willing to hand over control to the alumni.

The alumni, meanwhile, nurture a deep mistrust of the Government's ability to run the facility funded by them, says Ravinder Singh, former principal of the GMC, Patiala, and president of the Indian chapter of GOMCO. The US chapter of GOMCO has floated a Patiala Health Welfare Organisation to widen the scope of fund-raising. It has created seed money of Rs 50 lakh. Of this, Rs 20 lakh is spent on renovating the auditorium and buying equipment for operation theatre.

For the sons of fortune, the urge to pay back is getting stronger by the day. No wonder when Satwant Singh left for India, he was deluged with cheques from donors.