In the city of Gwalior, on 10 August 1941, a boy named Gurdip Singh was born. From an early age the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda called to him. He studied with quiet intensity, and in 1966 he stood first in his BAMS examination at Jiwaji University. Gold medals followed. He moved to Banaras Hindu University, […]

In a Mumbai home filled with the quiet determination of healers, Sandra Desa Souza was born in 1943. Her father, Dr. Joseph Vincent Desa, was a respected ENT surgeon. Her mother ran Stephen High School for the Deaf and Aphasic, a place where children who could not hear learned to navigate a silent world. As […]

In the coastal village of Pangala near Udupi, Karnataka, on 18 August 1938, a boy named Belle Monappa Hegde was born. From an early age he showed a sharp mind and a restless curiosity about how the human body worked—and how it could heal. He studied at Stanley Medical College in Madras, graduating with his […]

In the city of Patiala, on 23 April 1937, a boy named Rattan Lal Mittal was born. He grew up with a steady determination to heal what others might leave untouched. He earned his MBBS in 1960 and his MS in orthopaedics in 1966 from Punjabi University, then dedicated his life to the bones and […]

In the corridors of All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, a young doctor named Chandrakant Sambhaji Pandav began to see a quiet tragedy. Children with goitres, mothers with fatigue, minds that never reached their full potential—all linked to something as simple as missing iodine in the diet. He completed his MBBS and […]

In the town of Shikohabad in Uttar Pradesh, on 14 June 1941, a boy named Jitendra Nath Pande was born into a family of teachers. From an early age he showed a quiet brilliance. When he joined the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in its early years, classmates already spoke of him as one […]

In the village of Sukunda near Berhampur in Odisha’s Ganjam district, on 6 September 1939, a boy named Krishna Mohan Pathi was born. He grew up among the simple rhythms of rural life and carried that memory with him when he left for the city to study medicine. He earned his MBBS from S.C.B. Medical […]

In the city of Nagpur, a young man named Dhananjay Diwakar Sagdeo completed his MBBS at Indira Gandhi Medical College in 1980. Most of his classmates looked toward city hospitals and comfortable careers. At twenty-four he chose a different road. Inspired by the idea of service, he travelled south to the forested hills of Wayanad […]

In the bustling city of Kanpur, Ashok Kumar Sahu once lived a life measured by business and everyday demands. Then, more than twenty years ago, he encountered Vipassana—the ancient practice of insight meditation. What began as personal curiosity grew into a quiet calling that would touch tens of thousands of lives. He set aside the […]

In the small village of Saidnagar in Jalaun district of Uttar Pradesh, on 31 August 1956, a boy named Bhupendra Kumar Singh Sanjay was born. From those modest beginnings he carried a clear resolve: to mend what was broken and to prevent unnecessary suffering. He completed his MBBS at GSVM Medical College, Kanpur, in 1980, […]

In the district of Banka in Bihar, on 26 June 1926, a boy named Dilip Kumar Singh was born into a family already devoted to healing. His father, Dr. Yamuna Prasad Singh, had set the example. Young Dilip followed the same path, graduating with his MBBS from Patna Medical College in 1952. Opportunities abroad opened […]

In the crowded lanes of North Chennai, in the neighbourhoods of Vyasarpadi, Erukkancherry and Sri Kalyanapuram, a quiet figure became a legend simply by being present every evening. His name was V. Thiruvengadam, and the people called him the “Two-Rupee Doctor,” later the “Five-Rupee Doctor.” Born to a farmer, Veeraraghavan, and his wife Radhabai, young […]

In the small village of Dehed in what is now Jalna district of Maharashtra, on 3 March 1951, a boy named Himmatrao Saluba Bawaskar was born to a farming family. His father, Saluba, an unlettered man whom villagers called “Barrister” for his determination to educate his children, worked as a labourer so that his sons […]

In the classrooms of Medical College, Kolkata, a young student named Prokar Dasgupta graduated with his MBBS in 1989. He carried with him a clear ambition: to push the boundaries of what surgery could achieve. Soon he left for the United Kingdom, where advanced training and research would shape the rest of his career. He […]

In Gujarat, on 8 August 1941, a girl named Lata was born. She studied medicine at B.J. Medical College and, after marrying Dr. Anil Desai in 1968, the young couple travelled to the United States in 1972 for higher studies. Lata specialised in paediatrics; Anil in surgery. A comfortable life abroad was within reach. They […]

In Mumbai in 1940, a boy named Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre was born. He grew up to become a doctor, but he chose a path few others willingly walked: the care of people affected by leprosy, a disease still wrapped in fear and stigma. For nearly thirty-five years he served as Medical Superintendent of Acworth Leprosy […]

In the town of Vidisha in 1932, a boy named Narendra Prasad Misra was born. He ranked first in his university B.Sc., then earned his MBBS and MD from Gajra Raja Medical College in Gwalior. Further training took him to London as a Commonwealth Scholar and to the National Institutes of Health in the United […]

In the coastal town of Bhimavaram in West Godavari district, on 30 June 1939, a boy named Sunkara Venkata Adinarayana Rao was born to freedom-fighter parents. He studied at ULCM High School, then earned his MBBS in 1966 and MS in Orthopaedics in 1970 from Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam. Advanced training in microvascular and hand […]

In Chennai on 10 March 1938, a boy named Veeraswamy Seshiah was born. He completed his MBBS at Madras Medical College in 1962, served in the Army Medical Corps during the Indo-Pakistani War—earning the Samar Seva Star—and later returned to earn his MD. Teaching and clinical work followed at Stanley and Madras Medical Colleges. In […]

In the hill station of Mount Abu on 23 January 1933, a boy named Bhim Sen Singhal was born. He studied at Maharaja’s College in Jaipur, then moved to Mumbai for medicine at Grant Medical College and the Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals. After earning his MBBS and MD he travelled to London for advanced […]

In Maharashtra on 28 June 1940, a boy named Balaji Tambe was born to the Vedic scholar Shri Vasudeo Tambe Shastri. From childhood he absorbed the language of the scriptures and the healing wisdom of Ayurveda. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering in 1960 and, four years later, the title of Ayurveda Vaidya Visharad. […]

In the village of Madanpur in Siddharthnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, a boy named Kamlakar Tripathi was born. He grew up to become a physician of quiet dedication, eventually joining the Institute of Medical Sciences at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. He specialised in medicine and nephrology, rising to become Professor and Head of the […]

In what is now Kishoreganj, Bangladesh, on 12 November 1934, a boy named Dilip Mahalanabis was born. He studied medicine at Calcutta Medical College, trained further in London and Edinburgh, and became a paediatrician with a special interest in diarrhoeal diseases. In 1966 he joined the Johns Hopkins University research centre in Calcutta, studying oral […]

In the Punjab province of undivided India, on 16 January 1946, a boy named Munishwar Chandar Dawar was born. Partition forced his family across the new border. He grew up in Jalandhar, studied hard, and earned his MBBS from the medical college in Jabalpur in 1967. When war came in 1971 he joined the Army […]

In the town of Ghatal in West Midnapore, West Bengal, a boy named Ratan Chandra Kar grew up with a quiet determination to serve. He studied medicine at Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College in Kolkata, graduating in the early 1980s, and began his career in the northeast, working among tribes such as the Konyak in […]

In Telangana a young woman named Nalini chose the path of medicine and specialised in the care of children. She joined the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research—JIPMER—in Puducherry, rose to become Professor and later Head of the Department of Paediatrics, and taught generations of young doctors. During her years at JIPMER she […]

In Hyderabad a young paediatrician named Hanumantha Rao Pasupuleti looked at the children society preferred to hide. In the 1970s families often kept children with intellectual or physical disabilities out of sight. Few doctors offered specialised care. He decided that acceptance had to begin somewhere. In 1977 he founded a small centre and gave it […]

In the Midnapore district of West Bengal, on 2 March 1953, a boy named Manoranjan Sahu was born. He chose the path of Ayurveda and graduated from the State Ayurvedic College in 1977. Postgraduate studies and a doctorate followed at Banaras Hindu University, where he would spend the greater part of his working life. He […]

In Tamil Nadu a young man named Gopalsamy Veluchamy chose the ancient path of Siddha medicine. He was among the first generation to earn formal degrees in the system—BIM and MD (Siddha)—and stepped into teaching and practice at a time when traditional knowledge needed both protection and careful modern support. In 1970 he began as […]

In a family that valued learning, Ishwar Chander Verma was born on 25 December 1936. He studied medicine, trained in East Africa and the United Kingdom, and returned to India with a clear vision: the new science of genetics could transform the care of children and families facing inherited disorders. In 1967 he joined the […]

In Surat, Gujarat, on 3 March 1939, a boy named Ashwin Balachand Mehta was born. He studied medicine at King Edward Memorial Hospital and Seth G.S. Medical College in Mumbai, collecting nineteen gold medals along the way, and chose the young specialty of cardiology at a time when heart disease was still largely managed with […]

In Ahmedabad, Gujarat, a bright student named Tejas Madhusudan Patel earned his medical degrees with gold medals from B.J. Medical College. He specialised in cardiology and soon turned his attention to a safer, more precise way of opening blocked heart arteries—approaching them through the wrist rather than the groin. At a time when transradial angioplasty […]

In the village of Dubaha in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, on 3 September 1931, a boy named Chandreshwar Prasad Thakur was born. He topped the MBBS examination at Patna Medical College in 1957, collecting gold medals along the way, and later earned his MRCP from Edinburgh and London. He returned home to serve as Professor […]

In 1950 a little girl named Prema was born with a clear, melodious voice and dreams of becoming a singer. At the age of eight a kitchen stove exploded, covering half her body—especially her face and neck—in severe burns. She spent long months in Christian Medical College, Vellore, enduring fourteen reconstructive surgeries. Her voice was […]

In the vast tapestry of India’s healthcare story—woven through the lives of the doctors who founded great institutions and received the nation’s highest civilian honours—there walks a quieter sisterhood. The nurses. They do not always stand in the bright lights of operating theatres named after Padma-decorated pioneers. Yet without them, those theatres would fall silent. […]

Dr Duvvur Nageshwar ReddyPadma Shri, 2002 · Padma Bhushan, 2016 · Padma Vibhushan, 2025 — GastroenterologyThe first Indian doctor to receive all three Padma awards. Visakhapatnam, late 1950s. A boy from a house of pathologists wanted to know how petrol made a car move. He poured a little into a tin in the family garage, […]

Dr Jose Chacko PeriappuramPadma Shri, 2011 · Padma Bhushan, 2025 — Cardiothoracic SurgeryThe man who gave Kerala its first transplanted heart — and India its first second chance. South Paravur, Ernakulam. A botanist’s son who took first rank in BSc Botany at St Thomas College, Pala, then walked into Government Medical College, Kottayam, and decided […]

Prof. (Dr) Ashok Kumar MahapatraPadma Shri, 2025 — NeurosurgeryThe village boy from Puri who separated two heads that the world said could not be parted. Biranarasinghpur, Puri district. Four uncles were engineers. His father, Nabakishore, wanted the same for the boy. Then an uncle in a white coat walked into the house, and the boy […]