In the orthopaedic wards of Pune, where patients arrived with fractured limbs, crippling arthritis or the lingering effects of polio, Dr. Sharad Moreshwar Hardikar built a quiet reputation as a surgeon who combined technical skill with a deep sense of service. Born on 22 June 1932 in Phaltan, Satara district, Maharashtra, to Malati and Moreshwar Hardikar, he completed his MBBS at B.J. Medical College, Pune, and went on to earn the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (FRCS) in 1964.

After a stint teaching and treating patients in Uganda—including work at one of Africa’s largest polio clinics—he returned to India and joined B.J. Medical College as a lecturer and consultant orthopaedic surgeon. For twenty-five years he taught successive batches of medical students while refining his craft in the operating theatre.

In 1970 he founded Hardikar Hospital (later Deccan Hardikar Hospital) as a modest ten-bed orthopaedic nursing home. Under his leadership it grew into a multi-specialty centre. Through the Sushrut Medical Care and Research Society that he heads, he organised dozens of free medical camps, providing orthopaedic surgery to more than a thousand children and helping rehabilitate those with cerebral palsy and other disabilities. He also designed practical implants and fixators that made fracture treatment more accessible.

An honorary fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association and a former president of the Maharashtra Orthopaedic Association, he remained active in the clinic well into his later years. The Government of India recognised his lifelong contribution to orthopaedics and charitable care with the Padma Shri in 2004.

Married to Leela since 1957 and the father of one son, Sharad Moreshwar Hardikar’s journey—from a small-town boy in Satara to the founder of a respected hospital and a teacher of generations—remains a story of steady skill, practical innovation and quiet compassion for those who could least afford care.