The Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER) is one of the top five medical schools in India. It is located in Puducherry (formerly Pondicherry), a union territory town in southern India that lies on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. JIPMER is an Indian central government funded institute with autonomy to run its internal administration. JIPMER is both an educational institute that imparts undergraduate and postgraduate medical training and a working hospital that provides inexpensive medical care to a large number of patients. JIPMER is an institute of national importance and a tertiary care referral hospital that is under the direct administrative control of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, on par with similar medical institutes like AIIMS, PGI Chandigarh and Sanjay Gandhi PGIMS Lucknow. JIPMER originated on 1 January 1823 as "Ecole de Médicine de Pondichery," a medical school established by the French imperial government in India to train French citizens in Pondicherry.