Dr. Prathap Chandra Reddy (born 5 February 1933), popularly known as Prathap C. Reddy, is an Indian cardiologist and entrepreneur who founded Apollo Hospitals, India’s first major corporate hospital chain. He is widely credited with transforming private healthcare in the country and making advanced medical care more accessible. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan in 1991 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2010.

Born in the village of Aragonda in present-day Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, he graduated in medicine from Stanley Medical College in Chennai. He then trained as a cardiologist in the United Kingdom and the United States, completing a fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He later headed research programmes at the Missouri State Chest Hospital in the US before returning to India in the early 1970s at the urging of his father, who wanted him to serve his own country.

In India he initially practised as a cardiologist. The death of a young patient who could not afford treatment abroad deeply affected him. “Why should Indians have to travel halfway around the world for care that we can provide here?” he asked himself. That question led him to conceive a modern, multi-speciality hospital of international standards. After overcoming numerous bureaucratic and financial hurdles—and with support that included a meeting with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi—Apollo Hospitals opened its first facility in Chennai in 1983.

Under his leadership Apollo grew into one of Asia’s largest healthcare groups, with dozens of hospitals, thousands of beds, a vast network of pharmacies, clinics, diagnostic centres and telemedicine services. Reddy also pioneered the concept of the Master Health Check in India, emphasising preventive care long before it became mainstream. He has consistently advocated for affordable, high-quality healthcare and for positioning India as a global destination for medical treatment—“Heal in India.”

Beyond clinical and business achievements, he has supported social initiatives such as the Save a Child’s Heart programme for children with congenital heart disease. His four daughters—Preetha, Suneeta, Shobana and Sangita—all hold senior leadership roles in the Apollo group, continuing the family involvement in healthcare.

Dr. Prathap C. Reddy remains Chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Group. His life’s work has been chronicled in the biography Healer: Dr Prathap Chandra Reddy and the Transformation of India. Colleagues and patients often describe him as a visionary who combined medical skill with entrepreneurial courage, changing the landscape of Indian healthcare for millions.