Ms. Parinita Bhattacharjee is a founding member of India Health Action Trust (IHAT).
She has over two decades of experience in program designing and management with an expertise in the field of sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention and care. An advocate for gender equity and community participation, she has been working on integrating the same within public health programs. Parinita has been a champion of the program science approach and has consistently made efforts to ensure that research becomes meaningful for programs and policies.
Parinita has been involved in providing technical support for HIV prevention in several Asian and African counties like Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Malawi, Cote d’ivoire, to name a few. She leads the technical support units to the Government of Kenya to scale up HIV prevention programs. She is also involved in program science research for innovations like HIV self-testing. In the past, Parinita has served as a member of NACO’s Technical Working Group to scale the Link Worker Scheme, has led the gender and violence working group for the STRIVE consortium led by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has authored several journal articles, strategy papers, reports and project-related training manuals on scaling up HIV prevention programs, interventions with key populations, gender based violence, community mobilisation, to mention a few.
She supports IHAT by providing strategic direction and guidance related to community centric program design and implementation.
Parinita has Master’s Degree in Medical and Psychiatric Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India.
Dr B.M. Ramesh is a founding member of India Health Action Trust (IHAT).
A social scientist and a renowned demographer, Ramesh has more than three decades of experience in teaching, research, program implementation, monitoring and evaluation in the fields of demography, maternal, newborn and child health and HIV and AIDS. He led the design of technical support strategies in the public health for HIV and Maternal Health Programs in India.
Ramesh has pioneered several tools and methods for evidence-based planning and monitoring and evaluation of HIV/AIDS programs such as the geographical mapping of high-risk groups, use of management information systems for peer educators and program managers, and polling booth surveys to measure program outcomes.
He was a coordinator of the first National Family Health Survey (1992—1993) and has held leadership positions at Population Research Centre, Dharwad and the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit. He was also a lecturer at the International Institute for Population Sciences. He has authored more than 100 publications.
He supports IHAT in building strategic partnerships with the governments and global agencies while also providing guidance to IHAT’s Research, Monitoring and Evaluation team.
He holds a degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Demography from Bombay University, India.
Dr. Shivalingappa S Halli is an eminent demographer and a statistician, who has worked extensively in a wide arena of fields such as HIV, social demography, immigration & integration issues, gender based violence, maternal, newborn and child health. He has conducted various sociological research studies to generate ideas for new program interventions related to workplaces (both in informal and formal sectors), migration (of both clients and female sex workers), religious jathas (gatherings), etc.
Shiva has led some significant projects like River Bank Erosion Project in Bangladesh, Fertility Project in Australia, Immigration and Integration Projects in Canada and HIV Risk and Migration Projects in Karnataka. He has served as a member of the Evaluation Advisory Group of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for HIV and AIDS program in India; and during his consultancy with the United Nations, he was responsible for analysing a national survey on Safe Motherhood in Sudan. Shiva has authored 10 books and more than 70 publications/papers in peer reviewed journals.
The Government of Karnataka, in recognition of his contribution in the area of HIV, awarded him Rajyotsava Award, the highest civilian award in the service category. He was also felicitated by the Canadian Sociological and Anthropological Association for his outstanding contribution and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, India, in 2018.
Shiva provides strategic direction to IHAT in the area of family planning, and monitoring and evaluation.
Shiva earned his Ph. D. in Social Demography from University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
Dr. Prakash Kudur has over three decades of technical and managerial experience in public as well as private health sector domains, ranging from work with International Health organisations to NGOs, hospitals, industrial hospitals, pharmaceutical/Medical-Surgical companies and medical colleges. He has provided leadership for public health programs in the areas of Polio, MCH/Immunisation, HIV and AIDS, Corona Virus-MERS and Tuberculosis (TB). He has managed a wide range of portfolios during his career.
Prakash served as Director of Medical Services and TB Programs at Karnataka Health Promotion Trust. He has also held leadership positions at Becton Dickinson India Ltd. and at HMT Hospital. He was the Resident Surgeon at Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology at Bangalore and served as a Senior Specialist in Public Health for the Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was also associated with WHO and UNICEF, where he worked on large scale disease surveillance and eradication programs for Polio and Measles. He has contributed as an advisor for various government departments on promotion of Infection Control and Patient Safety. Prakash has been a part of several national and international conferences and was a speaker at the IAS Conference Mexico in 2008 and ISSTDR Conference at London in 2009. The World Health Organization has recognised him as an expert advisor on HIV-TB. He has authored various publications related to Sexually Transmitted Infections, Key Populations and HIV treatment and care, to name a few.
He provides strategic support to IHAT in the areas of Health Systems Strengthening, HIV and TB.
Prakash has a degree of MD in Community Medicine from the University of Mysore; he completed his MBA in Health Care Services Management from Sikkim-Manipal University, India.
Meena Narula, the CEO of India Health Trust (IHAT), is an experienced leader with a strong background in programmatic work, institution building, and change management spanning nearly 30 years. In her role, she is responsible for driving the organizational strategy, overseeing IHAT operations, and serving as a key liaison between IHAT, donors, partners, and the government.
With a focus on advancing IHAT’s vision to positively impact vulnerable populations by tackling health and social inequities, Ms. Narula leads strategic development efforts, promotes technical and operational excellence within IHAT, and fosters collaborations with public and private sector partners. Her expertise lies in areas such as comprehensive primary health care, nutrition, innovations, SRHR, gender transformative and inclusive health programming and the use of technology for healthcare.
Prior to her current position, Ms. Narula has held roles with Plan International, Water For People, Aga Khan Development Network agencies, and ORG Centre for Social Research. She is known for her work in spearheading organizational development strategies, establishing new programs, ensuring quality assurance, and building partnerships for resource mobilization. Additionally, she has a strong background in regulatory compliance, financial oversight, and operational excellence.
Ms. Narula’s academic background includes a Master’s Degree in Regional Planning from the School of Planning and Architecture, as well as a specialized Master’s Degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University focusing on Research and Evaluation Methodologies. Her extensive experience, coupled with her dedication to improving healthcare access and outcomes for underserved communities, positions her as a respected figure in the field of global health and development.
John Anthony serves as the Senior Project Director of the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU) within IHAT. UP TSU is a flagship program with the primary goal of making substantial contributions towards enhancing the state’s health systems and policies, thereby enabling the efficient delivery of advanced services in Maternal, Newborn, Child Health, Family Planning, and Nutrition programs. John brings a diverse array of skills, a strong technical background, and a wealth of expertise to the team, which plays a pivotal role in driving the impactful initiatives currently underway in Uttar Pradesh. His dedication and contributions are instrumental in supporting the Government of Uttar Pradesh’s efforts to improve healthcare outcomes in the region. This contribution is crucial to the country’s progress towards attaining Sustainable Goals 2030 and bringing in sustainability, peace and prosperity for people and the planet.
In his previous role, John served as the Program Director for the Maternal, Newborn, Child Health, and Nutrition (MNCH and N) program within UP TSU. As Program Director, he led a substantial team dedicated to assisting the Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP) in strategizing, implementing, and evaluating MNCH and N interventions. These efforts were designed to enhance maternal and neonatal outcomes in the state and play a crucial role in reducing maternal and neonatal mortality rates.
John’s extensive experience also includes his tenure as the Head of the National Technical Support Unit at the National AIDS and STI Control Program under the Ministry of Health in the Government of Kenya where he set up cutting-edge HIV prevention programs for the key populations which contributed to reduction of HIV burden. He played a pivotal role in leading one of the first Technical Support Units for HIV/AIDS interventions in India, specifically for the state of Karnataka. His educational background includes a postgraduate degree in Rural Management, and he has contributed to several publications focusing on strengthening government management capacity for scaling up HIV prevention programs through the utilization of Technical Support Units. Additionally, John has written about the noteworthy transition of the Avahan HIV Prevention Program from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the Government of India. This transition holds significant importance in the context of achieving sustainability and scalability for public health programs.
Dr. Reynold Washington is the Senior Advisor of India Health Action Trust (IHAT). Reynold provides programmatic direction to IHAT’s flagship programs – HIV, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health with specific reference to systems for capacity building of health care providers, community processes and learning initiatives. As a community health specialist, with over three decades of programmatic, research and teaching experience, Reynold has successfully led the scaling up of HIV prevention and care services, training systems and research across Karnataka and other states in India. His areas of interest include HIV, TB, Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health. He has been recognized for leading several pioneering innovations that significantly contributed to the national programme and public policy, and for translating knowledge to post-graduate students, programme implementers, policy makers and donors within India and in several countries in Africa and Asia.
He is a technical resource member for the World Health Organization (WHO), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), and the Karnataka State TB Operations Research Committee. He has authored and co-authored about 100 publications in peer reviewed journals and has presented as many papers at National and International Conferences. He has received the B.M. Patil Oration award from the Karnataka Association of Community Health in 2013, a citation from St John’s National Academy of Health Sciences for more than a decade of service, and a medallion from the Governor General, Canada for promotion of bilateral programs that have influenced public health policy in 2014. He has a Doctorate in Medicine (Community Health) from St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore University and has a Diplomate of the National Board of Exam from Social and Preventive Medicine National Board, New Delhi.
Preeti Anand leads the Family Planning program of Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). She provides technical assistance to the Government of Uttar Pradesh to improve access and quality of family planning services. A visionary with a strong collaborative ability, Preeti not only manages donor and partner relationships, but also efficiently contributes into state level strategic planning on family planning, including project administration, implementation and fiscal management. She leads a team of experts that works tirelessly to support the government in strengthening family planning interventions across the state. The efforts leading to these have the potential to break the cycle of poverty and bring sustainability at the fore.
Having more than two decades of experience in the development sector, Preeti has worked as a key strategic planner, program implementer in the areas of family planning, safe abortions, maternal health and HIV using social marketing and franchising models/tools at scale in a population base of over 400 million and managing projects in tune of over 20 million USD. Her niche are in program management and compliances of large-scale projects. Have designed, developed and help adopt, behaviour change communication campaigns for family planning, reproductive health and HIV.
Prior to joining IHAT, Preeti has played a key role in developing policies, training curriculum and management systems in bilateral and multilateral organizations. She has worked on projects supported by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, DFID, USAID, ST Buffet Foundation, DKT International, Marie Stopes International. She has also worked with Janani (DKT Bihar), Chetna and Aga Khan Foundation (India).
Preeti has a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
Dr. Renu Srivastava, Strategy Director for Newborn and Child Health, provides strategic leadership and technical guidance to the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). Renu acts as a coordinator and information focal point for all key stakeholders within UP TSU and the external partners working to carry forward the agenda of Survive, Thrive and Transform for newborn and child health. Her direct liaison with the government at the state and national level ensures alignment of the agenda and integration of work plans for newborn and child health.
As the techno-managerial support to Child Health Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) under Norway India Partnership Initiative, Renu assisted in accelerating child health survival under National Health Mission. She coordinated with other divisions at MoHFW, including National Health System and Resource Centre’s in implementing Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent health strategy. Her efforts helped in ensuring consistent implementation while generating evidence base for State specific advocacy and policy direction using standardised tools for mentoring and monitoring and database for Facility based newborn care units across States and Union Territories. Renu also had the privilege to represent national level at regional/state levels of technical and implementation fora.
In her previous stints, Renu has served in various capacities with Uttar Pradesh Provincial Medical & Health Services. As a Surveillance Medical Officer in National Polio Surveillance Project (WHO), she provided technical and logistic assistance for planning, evaluating and monitoring polio eradication activities in India through advocating with Government counterparts and stakeholders. Renu was the member of Core Team for developing India Newborn Action Plan and contributed in several technical and operational national guidelines and guidance notes; like Sepsis management & use of Antenatal corticosteroids by ANM, Kangaroo Mother care & optimal feeding, Child Death review, Home based young child care etc.
Renu has done MBBS and MD in Paediatrics from King George’s Medical University, Lucknow and MBA in Health care from Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Delhi.
Dr. Bidyut is the lead for the First Referral Units domain of Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP-TSU). Bidyut spearheads the initiatives on strengthening the government health facilities across Uttar Pradesh. He provides strategic direction and technical support to the Government of Uttar Pradesh in streamlining the referral pathways, building the capacities of the medical personnel and developing systems to address the maternal and neonatal complication management & mortality. His role is vital to devising solutions to support the government in reducing maternal, infant and neonatal mortality rate of the state, thus contributing to country’s goals on healthcare and sustainability.
A medical doctor, an epidemiologist and a public health researcher, Bidyut’s area of expertise includes reproductive health, immunisation, surveillance, research and management of large scale projects. He comes with more than two decades of experience in communicable and non-communicable diseases including mental health. He has experience of working in multiple states of India, with a deep insight of the health systems at various levels in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Before joining IHAT, Bidyut worked for more than a decade with WHO India and was also a National Team Leader for its National Polio Surveillance Project. He also served as the National Coordinator for Polio Outbreak response in Papua New Guinea for WHO’s Western Pacific Regional Office. He has multiple research publications in high impact international journals including The Lancet, Thorax, Heart, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Addiction, Psychopharmacology and Nicotine & Tobacco Research. He is also a reviewer for journals like PLOS One, BMC Public Health, the WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health and Indian Journal of Medical Research.
He has a doctorate in Epidemiology and Public health from University College London, United Kingdom.
Professor (Dr) Uma Singh, Senior Technical Director, Maternal Health, is responsible for providing strategic and technical advice and support to the Government of Uttar Pradesh in strengthening its maternal health programs. She also acts as the coordinator, liaison person and information focal point for all key factors within the UP TSU and with external partners vis-a-vis maternal health. Her responsibilities include providing policy and program support at the state and national levels and also provides mentorship to enhance team capacity in maternal health. Uma is an academician with passion to work for women’s health including adolescent health, maternal health and genital cancers in women.Having worked in a tertiary care hospital for over four decades, she has vast experience in clinical management of women with obstetrical and gynecological problems. She has been involved as a technical expert in various state, national and international initiatives related to women’s health. She has contributed in various state and national societies for operational guidelines and SOP development and has received recognitions for the same.
Prior to joining IHAT, Uma has served as a faculty in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at King Gorge’s Medical University (KGMU), for 38 years and hence was closely involved in patient care, research and teaching and training of undergraduates of MBBS program, postgraduates and PhD students. She was an administrative lead as the Head of the Department and Dean Academics at KGMU. She has about 100 research publications in national and international journals and has 7 orations to her credit, apart from more than 80 invited scientific presentations at different platforms. She has done her MBBS, MS (Obs & Gynae) from G R Medical College, Gwalior; WHO fellowship in gynecological oncology from Brigham & Women Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA; Advanced Course in Medical Education of MCI CMC Ludhiana from and Fellowship in Indian Medical Education from KGMU, Lucknow.
Anantharaman Iyer (Anand) leads the Information and Communications Technology portfolio for the UP TSU . In this role, Anand leads the efforts towards the introduction and use of technology for UP TSU, and provides technical expertise and support to the Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP), specifically to the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the National Health Mission, Uttar Pradesh.
Anand leads a team of experts who build systems, software applications and adapt technology to help GoUP in effective service delivery, monitoring & evaluation. Intersection of healthcare and technology is crucial to bring health equity in the country, as well as across the globe, to address the public health challenges and contribute towards the well-being of people and the planet.
Anand has over three decades of experience in the IT domain, with over 17 years in Healthcare IT – leading HIS implementations and driving the creation of Electronic Health Records in both private and State-run healthcare networks. As a Healthcare Architect, Anand has guided healthcare organizations around the world to help define their IT strategy and adopt a best-of-breed stack of products, using EAI technologies to ensure that these systems work well together. As CTO and VP-Technology, Anand has led both Product and Services organizations, leading the development of systems that address real-world problems.
His areas of expertise include Strategic Planning, Design, Change-Management and Driving the adoption of systems to improve clinical outcomes while achieving operational excellence.
Before joining IHAT, Anand worked in leadership roles at InterSystems, Birlasoft, Talisma, Aditi Technologies, Microsoft, HP and the DRDO. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Delhi University and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Pune University.
Dr. Ravi Prakash is Director- Monitoring, Evaluation & Research domain of the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP-TSU). He provides strategic leadership on designing and delivering community and facility-based sample surveys as a support to the health programs of the Government of Uttar Pradesh. He has been playing a key role in establishing mechanisms to improve the quality of existing government data systems, and supporting the inclusion of survey results in government decision-making processes. The data-driven and information-based systems converge with the developmental goals of the country and can accelerate the progress towards quality health care and sustainability.
A quantitative researcher with about 15 years of experience in planning, designing, managing, and monitoring of large studies, Ravi has been instrumental in setting up monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems for large-scale interventions; and analysis of large data sets using sophisticated statistical techniques. Ravi has contributed significantly in the areas of sexual and reproductive health of adolescents, impact of community-based intervention on increasing the knowledge and contraceptive use and impact evaluation of community mobilization and empowerment efforts in reducing STI/HIV-related risks and vulnerabilities among the key population, across various states in India.
Before joining IHAT, Ravi has served as a Before joining IHAT, Ravi has served as a Director for Research and M&E at Karnataka Health Promotion Trust. He has also worked in research projects supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), UKAID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and the national programs under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
Ravi has more than 63 peer-reviewed publications in international and national journals, books, and 13 technical reports to his credit. He has also participated and presented his research work in more than 30 international and national conferences and scientific workshops. He earned his M.Phil and Ph.D. in Population Studies from the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai.
Dr. Sanjiv Kumar leads the clinical program in Non First Referral Units portfolio for the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP-TSU). In this role, Sanjiv provides technical expertise and support to the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the National Health mission under Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP). Sanjiv is leading a large team and helps GoUP to plan, implement and evaluate reproductive, maternal, new born and adolescent health initiatives of the state. These interventions are essential for ensuring that women and children have the opportunity to achieve the highest standard of health.
With over 18 years of experience in health and nutrition, Sanjiv’s areas of expertise include Maternal, Newborn and Child Health program with focus on designing and implementing facility and community based intervention such as Facility and home based newborn care intervention, MNH intervention at intrapartum and immediate postpartum period and Routine Immunization strengthening. He successfully led the Nurse mentoring program and help government to scale up the intervention from 100 block level facilities to 820 block level facilities and district Hospitals. Along with this he also provides support to institutionalize in-service training (SBA, Daksh, Dakshata etc.) of nursing cadre and technical support in ensuring quality assurance services in public health facilities of UP.
Prior to joining IHAT, Sanjiv worked with Save the Children as a Newborn and Child health specialist and provided technical support in implementation of facility and community based newborn care in UP and Bihar. He also worked as the Divisional Health and Nutrition consultant at UNICEF and provided technical support to GoUP in the field of child health including immunization, maternal health, newborn health, nutrition and sanitation. He has also contributed immensely to the public health and development sector during his association with prominent organizations like USAID – Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program, ICMR International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Association and Indian Council of Medical Research. Sanjiv has received his MBBS degree from Mysore Medical College, Mysore and completed his MD (Community Medicine) from King George’s Medical University, Lucknow.
Manuj Purwar, as the Director- Health Systems Strengthening, leads the Health System Strengthening area for improving delivery of public health services at Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). He is responsible for providing technical support to Government of Uttar Pradesh and allied organizations to ensure availability of trained Human Resources and quality medical supplies to all public health facilities of Uttar Pradesh and help the state of Uttar Pradesh move faster towards the SDG goals.
Manuj has over thirteen year of experience in technology, strategy consulting and supply chain management and has worked closely with senior leadership within government for policy advocacy and strategic management of public health initiatives. He has been instrumental in conceptualization, design and operationalization of Uttar Pradesh Medical Services Corporation (UPMSC) – Nodal agency for procurement and distribution of medical supplies in Uttar Pradesh as well as roll-out of Drugs and Vaccine Distribution Management System (DVDMS) – an online information system to manage supply chain of medical supplies in the Uttar Pradesh.
Prior to working with IHAT, Manuj has worked with Accenture Strategy and Morgan Stanley. During his tenure with Accenture, Manuj was involved in multiple supply chain improvement and procurement transformation projects including assessment and redesign of RMNCH+A supply chain for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar through Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Manuj is an electrical engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi. He has done his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, India and also earned Masters of Science in International Business Management from HEC – Paris, France.
Govinda Raju leads the financial functions for all projects being implemented by IHAT and works in close coordination with the respective project finance heads, Board of Trustees and the donors. His major responsibilities include program budgeting, fund management, overseeing of accounting activities across the projects, coordinating audits, ensuring statutory compliances and donor compliances including financial reporting to donors.
His areas of expertise include financial planning, budget management, fund management, accounting, developing financial policies and processes, internal controls, statutory compliances, financial reporting, coordinating and addressing internal & external audits and capacity building of finance team and partners. He is well versed with various accounting and HR softwares.
Raju has over 25 years experience in the field of finance and accounts with various corporates and International non government organisations. His last assignment was with a Singapore based group serving rural communities in Uttar Pradesh with renewable energy as Director and Head of Finance, managing the finance and compliances of the group companies in India and Singapore. During his 16 years’ career in the development sector, he has contributed to development of financial policies and procedures, building finance teams, effectively managing the budgets, ensured timely statutory compliances and grants. He is a member of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWA) and holds a degree in Commerce from the Berhampur University.
Shadab Khan leads the Human Resources department at IHAT. She is responsible for developing and executing human resource strategy in support of the overall plan and strategic direction of the programs, specifically in the areas of succession planning, talent management, change management, performance management, training and development, compensation, employee engagement and implementation of the HR policies. She will lead the HR Transformation projects in specific HR functions to revitalize the internal processes to achieve high employee motivation and performance in the organization.
Shadab comes with over 20 years of work experience and has worked on the themes of safe migration and worker protection, prevention of violence against women and children, family planning, vision correction and eye care, US higher education and Fulbright Fellowships, and software development Shadab carries experience in the areas of early growth stage HR setup and scaling, work culture transformation, structural transformation, digital transformation, and HR processes transformation, driving change and innovation through “Best Practices”, policy development and standardizing the human resources operating procedures. She has experience in streamlining the compensation framework, benchmarking, and benefits administration. She has Lead POSH, Safeguarding and well-being, diversity, equity, and inclusion. She has managed talent through effective talent fitment, leadership development, competency mapping, performance reviews, rewards & recognition, employee’s professional growth plan, talent retention, succession planning, employee relations, grievance, analysing trends related to turnover, etc.
Shadab has done Graduation in English Literature from the University of Delhi and MBA in Human Resources from Hamdard University, New Delhi.
Dr. Dhanunjaya Rao Chintada leads the Community Outreach portfolio of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) program for the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). He provides technical expertise and support to the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the National Health Mission, Uttar Pradesh in implementing community outreach interventions. The efforts in this direction are leading to improve the maternal and newborn health outcomes of the state.
A social scientist, with more than 23 years of experience, Dhanunjaya’s forte areas include program design, implementation, community mobilization, and advocacy in the areas of HIV/AIDS prevention and care interventions with the Key Population and Orphan and Vulnerable Children, maternal, newborn & child health and community institution building.
Previously, Dhanunjaya has worked with national and international organisations across India such as, Government of Andhra Pradesh, CARE and Karnataka Health Promotion Trust. He served as the lead for South to North technical support unit, National AIDS and STI Control Program for Rajasthan. He has been awarded field leader fellowship in Public Health by Centre for Disease Control (CDC)/ USAID and PHMI and International Infectious Diseases & Global Health by the University of Manitoba (UOM), Canada. He has authored and co-authored several publications pertaining to implementing scale up HIV prevention. He has a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Social Work from Jaipur National University, Jaipur.
Dr. Vandana Singh is part of the Strategy team to provide technical assistance and oversight to broader RMNCHN programs across community, facility and health systems platforms. Specifically, she provides strategic technical assistance on maternal health interventions in UPTSU. Her key areas of expertise are strengthening quality of service delivery by health facilities by setting up quality improvement processes, ensuring skill building of labor room service providers including complication detection and management along with respectful maternity care, developing mentoring modules for the nurse mentors and providing hands on mentoring and training on difficult to learn skills.
Vandana has been instrumental in and contributed to the development of the Mini Skill lab manual for use for Nurse Mentors, NBSU case sheet and NBSU register currently in use in the state of UP. She supervised and assisted the State NHM in selection of the 1st batch of Midwifery Educators in 2019. She was the nodal from UPTSU to facilitate all state level trainings of doctors, nurses and paramedics on COVID 19 in collaboration with DGMH during the pandemic. She has supported the GoUP in the LaQshya initiative since 2021 and has led the scale up of SBA training of labor room service providers across UP. More recently, she has led the development of the induction training module for permanent staff nurses under the leadership of DG training.
With a passion for public health, Vandana has more than 15 years of experience of working in the rural districts of UP in various capacities including Leprosy Elimination program and National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP), WHO as Surveillance Medical Officer in UP and SRTL Delhi. In her current capacity, she is State Master Trainer for SBA, Daksh, MDSR, NBSU and NSSK. She is the State trainer for skill orientation in the Foundation batches of doctors conducted by SIHFW, UP. She is the Nodal officer from UP TSU for the Midwifery initiative in UP, member of National Technical Resource Group for LaQshya Sustainability, member of the ANC PNC Research Collaborative (ARC) by BMGF, contributor to the National ANC and Humanitarian Response Plan guidelines and certified Co-creator and master trainer of the Postpartum Hemorrhage Emergency Care using Bundle Approach Program developed by Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and MGIMS Sewagram.
She is the recipient of MS Signature Award for Phenomenal leadership in Emergency Obstetric Care 2020 and UP State award for 3rd highest ANC checks as volunteer under PMSMA program in 2021.
Vandana received her MBBS degree from Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore (Manipal Academy of Higher Education, MAHE University) and DNB from Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital and Research Centre (JLNHRC), Chhattisgarh.
Gurumurthy leads the Administration function of IHAT. He provide strategic direction of administrative functions aligned with the goals and ensures efficient operations and statutory compliances of the administrative function, procurement, logistics, and asset management portfolios. As a senior member of the operations team, he plays a pivotal role in shaping administrative policies and procedures, particularly in the effective utilization of assets and human resources across IHAT’s operations. His proficiency in executing charitable plans has assisted IHAT in optimizing the utilization of funds more effectively.
Gurumurthy offers capacity-building, guidance, and hands-on support to project administration teams across the organization. He ensures adherence to organizational policies, systems, procedures, guidelines, and branding standards in all activities conducted within branch offices, project offices, and divisional offices.
With over 20 years of administration and procurement expertise in the development sector, Gurumurthy has served in various capacities, and strategized and provided directions to the administration teams of the project he worked on.
Dr. Seema Tandon leads the Regional Resource Training Centre (RRTC) project of Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP-TSU) for strengthening of First Referral Units (FRUs) of 25 HPDs of Uttar Pradesh in context of Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmOC) services through an innovative academic partnership with government medical colleges of Uttar Pradesh. She is a National Expert for Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP) for drafting guidelines in Maternal Death Surveillance Response, LaQshya, EmOC and Life Saving Anesthesia Skills (LSAS) trainings. These interventions play a critical role in improving the maternal and neonatal health indicators of the state.
A gynecologist by profession, Dr Seema Tandon has more than 25 years of experience in maternal health and family planning services. Her core areas of work include integrated clinical approach to Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCHA+) interventions and improvement of quality of care in service delivery. She has significantly contributed in developing guidelines, standards of practice, protocols, methods and indicators for FRU based interventions. A master trainer of different RMNCHA+ activities at all levels of service delivery, Dr Seema Tandon is well equipped with necessary clinical and training skills to develop capacities of different cadres of service providers at different levels of public health system.
Dr Seema Tandon has been associated with UP TSU since its inception in 2014 and has contributed immensely in the maternal health interventions. She played a significant role in conducting trainings on the Rolling Facility Survey strategy and supported the team in articulation of various means of verification to be used in the assessment of important maternal health indicators. She designed the concept and implementation strategy of RRTC network to improve management of maternal and newborn complications at FRUs in UP. Prior to working with IHAT, Dr Seema Tandon was associated with Population Services International as Senior Maternal Health Specialist. She has also served as Medical officer at Family Planning Association of India and as MCH officer in the ICMR project at King George’s Medical University, Lucknow. She has been an active member of Federation of Obstetric and Gynecological Societies of India (FOGSI) since 1985 and has publications on high risk pregnancy and a research paper on Strengthening of FRUs in All India Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AICOG 2020). She has been recognised and awarded at different platforms for her incredible work in maternal and public health. She received a letter of appreciation for her contribution in family planning services from Mr. Bill Gates and has been awarded for extraordinary work for Human Race by Lords of Planet. She did her MBBS and DGO from G.S.V.M Medical College, Kanpur and senior fellowship in Obstetrics and Gynecology from Institute of OBGY Osmania University, Hyderabad.
Dr. Vandana Naidu serves in the capacity of Deputy Director for the Nutrition Project of Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). She leads a dynamic team that is responsible for providing technical assistance to the government for strategic planning and implementation of programs on maternal, infant, young child nutrition, to engage and collaborate with government and development partners. She works in close coordination with the ICDS and Uttar Pradesh State Nutrition Mission and provides support to the nutrition initiatives in the state. These efforts play a critical role in contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.
Vandana is a public health professional, with experience in strengthening systems for community and facility based, maternal, newborn, child health and nutrition (MNCHN) interventions. She is well experienced in providing technical assistance at district, state and national levels and quality improvement in identified processes related to MNCHN service delivery.
Her learnings in public health nutrition programming are drawn from experience with the Integrated Nutrition and Health Project (Care India), Vistaar project (Intrahealth International) and with Alive & Thrive (FHI 360). She has contributed to the design and development of the Quality Assurance component of the World Bank funded Uttar Pradesh Health Systems Strengthening Project and provided technical assistance for the Quality Improvement initiative of USAID/ASSIST in six Indian states. She also contributed to the development of the Draft State Health Policy of Uttar Pradesh.
Dr. Deep Thacker leads the Routine Immunization portfolio of the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health program in the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit. He provides technical support to the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the National Health Mission, Uttar Pradesh, in implementing immunization interventions. His key areas of expertise are designing and implementing strategies for new vaccine introduction, infectious disease surveillance and private sector engagement. Deep is passionate about using technology to drive change in public health and strongly advocates data-driven decision making.
During his previous association with Global Health Strategies, Deep provided technical support to Tuberculosis, Neglected Tropical Diseases and RMNCH+A teams while building and managing relationships with various stakeholders like government officials, elected representatives, partner organizations, professional medical bodies, amongst others. Before that, he led state teams in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to provide technical support to the state governments to introduce the Rotavirus vaccine. Deep was also involved in designing and implementing large-scale capacity building programs with the Indian Academy of Pediatrics like Neonatal Resuscitation Program, Helping Babies Survive and IAP Mission Uday.
Deep has done his Masters in Public Health from Harvard University and completed his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka.
Dr. Madhavi is the Deputy Director, Data Science at Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU), where she provides technical and strategic assistance to Data Science initiatives to support the overarching goal of UP TSU. Her role focuses on implementing data-driven Artificial Intelligence that can catalyse interventions aimed at reducing neonatal mortality and improve women and child health across the state. Madhavi has eight years of experience as an AI specialist and fifteen years of experience as an educator, working in reputed international universities. Her areas of expertise include data mining, predictive analytics, machine learning & deep learning.
Prior to joining IHAT, she held the position of Senior Data Scientist at Accenture, Manila, Philippines, followed by Associate Professor at Asian Institute of Management, Manila, Philippines. Her industry experience has helped her develop the ability to handle Big Data. She enjoys knowledge sharing and has published 29 publications related to data science techniques in reputed journals. Her research interests lie in the fields of BlockChain, Cancer Classification, Predictive Analytics & Model Manager.
Madhavi has earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow. She also holds other in-demand career certifications, R Programming for Data Science & Implementing Predictive Analytics with Spark in Azure HDInsight from Microsoft.
Dr. Vibhor Jain, as the Deputy Director, provides technical and managerial support to the First Referral Units (FRUs) Domain of the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). He is responsible for developing strategies to strengthen service delivery at the FRUs to cater to maternal and newborn health outcomes of Uttar Pradesh. Vibhor works closely with government officials and provides support in planning, policy development, review, and program implementation. He leads the field teams and provides strategic inputs into developing the M&E framework and reviews the performance of projects to ensure the use of evidence-based program planning and system strengthening.
Vibhor’s areas of expertise include reproductive, maternal, newborn & child health, health systems strengthening and communicable diseases. He is an epidemiologist and passionate about field-based research. He has experience in managing large public health projects. He formulated data-driven policies to make key systemic improvements for successful program implementation for the underprivileged and unreached population in some of the most challenging geographies of the world.
Vibhor has previously worked with the World Health Organization, John Snow India Private Limited, Helping Babies Survive Program (American Academy of Pediatrics – Indian Academy of Pediatrics), and Government of India & Government of Uttar Pradesh, among others. He led a first-of-its-kind field study in India on Immunogenicity for a supplemental dose of vaccine, which was awarded the Charles C. Shepard Science Award in 2012 for demonstrating excellence in Science. Vibhor developed capacity building modules under the Polio Eradication Initiative, catering to almost 1.7 million frontline workers across India. He has authored several research publications in high-impact journals like Lancet, Journal of infectious disease, and BMC Public Health. He was an assessor representing NITI Aayog to validate key performance indicators of district hospitals across the country in 2019. Vibhor has done his MBBS from MLB Medical College and Hospitals, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh and Postgraduate Diploma in Epidemiology from Indian Institute of Public Health, New Delhi, India.
Shweta Bankar is the Deputy Director – Gender at Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). She provides strategic leadership on designing, planning and integrating gender equality across UP TSU programs. She plays a key role in establishing mechanisms to integrate gender equality in the processes, programs and policies with the support of empirical evidence.
Shweta brings in the scope for gender analysis to advocate for systemic change to mainstream gender in public policy by sensitizing stakeholders officials around gender related issues. Gender mainstreaming converges with the developmental goals of the country and can accelerate the progress towards quality and respectful health care and sustainability.
Shweta is a development sector professional with an experience of more than 14 years in planning, designing, managing, and monitoring of large programmes and action research, She has been instrumental in rolling out large scale programs centering gender norms and gender analysis integrated with qualitative research mainly Participatory Learning and Action to voice the unheard and build accountability. She had contributed significantly to the areas of men engagement in gender norms shifting interventions, sexual and reproductive health of adolescents, impact of community-based intervention on shifting norms around early, child and forced marriage, and empowerment efforts in reducing vulnerabilities among the marginalized population, across various states in India.
Before joining IHAT, Shweta has served as a Senior Research Fellow at Centre for Social and Behaviour Change, Ashoka University. She has also worked on gender norms around adolescent girls and health service uptake at Dasra, Mumbai. Her work with the International Centre for Research on Women as the Senior Technical Specialist focused on gender norm shifting interventions in the marginalized communities across various states in India. Shweta has more than 20 peer reviewed publications in international journals, books, reports to her credit. She has also participated and presented her research work in a number of international and national conferences and scientific workshops. She earned her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women’s University, Pune Campus, India.
Dr. Prashant Misra, as Deputy Director for NFRU, leads the Nurse Mentoring program in 9 divisions of Uttar Pradesh. He is also responsible for the scale-up and transition of the Nurse Mentoring program in 820 blocks of the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh. He works closely with the Maternal Health and Nursing/Training division of the National Health Mission along with the counterparts in the Directorate of health GoUP.
Dr Prashant is a competent project manager with over 16 years of expertise managing complex healthcare projects and also carries over four years of clinical experience. He has substantial experience working in a range of areas linked to healthcare, as well as a wide grasp of the healthcare business as a whole. As a specialist in public health, he is familiar with advising on healthcare-related project plans, outlining their scope and feasibility and assessing and optimizing available resources.
He has led public health projects in various multi-spectral public health organizations (HLFPPT, Pathfinder International, HCL Foundation) in North India. His areas of the professional association include HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Family Planning and MNH. He first worked with UP TSU with consortium partner Engender Health in 2014/15. His current assignment with UPTSU started in 2017 with the FRU strengthening program of RRTC, which was followed by leading the operational research project of MNCH BOOST. In his current assignment with the NFRU team, he has been associated since 2019.
Coming to his academic credentials, he pursued M.D (Physician), from Dagestan State Medical Academy, Russia, along with a PGD in Hospital & Healthcare Management from Symbiosis Institute of Health Sciences, Pune, for the period 2004-2006. Additionally, he has also completed a PG Diploma course in Epidemiology from IIPH New Delhi. Dr Prashant has co-authored and presented a paper at NATCON 2011 in Dehradun over “Establishing Systems on HIV-TB Care in Community Setting”.
| Sachin Kothari, is the Deputy Director of the Family Planning, Program for the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). He leads the Family Planning program team that is responsible for providing technical support to the Department of Medical Health and Family Welfare and National Health Mission for planning and implementation of th program in all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh. The focus is to enhance the effective availability, accessibility & utilization of FP services in the state to achieve the goal of 75% demand satisfaction by modern methods and to reduce the unmet need of contraception among eligible couples. Sachin’s core competency includes techno-managerial assistance to the department, health system strengthening, advocacy, supply chain management, partnership management, designing tailor-made approaches & behavior change communication strategies in the area of Family Planning. He is an experienced public health professional working across RMNCH+A portfolio with more than 20 years of experience working with esteemed organizations like Gujarat Council of Primary Education-SSA, Department of Medical Health and FW, NHM-Rajasthan, CARE India, Pathfinder International, UNFPA & IPE Global Ltd. Amongst the many milestones achieved as footprints, his contributions in the development of “e-Saadhana” an application for supply chain management of family planning commodities which was later replicated by the Government of India as FPLMIS; Strategy to roll out new contraceptives in the state along with the development of “AntaraRaj” application for tracking and tracing injectable contraceptive beneficiaries and Integrated Sterilization Case Card were acknowledged and appreciated. Sachin holds Master’s degree in Business Administration from University in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. |
Dr. Manoj Kumar Singh, as the Deputy Director, is responsible for developing strategies to strengthen service delivery by activating designated FRU health facilities in district and block levels for improved quality of care around maternal and newborn health in Uttar Pradesh. He works closely with government health counterparts and provides support in the review, planning, policy development, training, supportive supervision and program implementation. He leads the field teams and provides strategic inputs into developing the M&E framework and reviews the performance of projects to ensure the use of evidence-based program planning, system strengthening and achieving goals.
Manoj has 15 years’ experience in public health program and his areas of expertise include reproductive, maternal, newborn & child health program with focus on designing and implementation of facility and community based intervention such as labor room services along with respectful maternity care, facility and home based new born care intervention. He had played a key role and contributed significantly to the development of the SNCU, NBSU, model labor room and cold chain. He provided support in training and mentoring of SNCU staff when he was in state resource center.
Manoj has previously worked with World Health Organisation, UNICEF, NLR and Medical College. Prior to joining IHAT, he worked with UNICEF as maternal and newborn specialist and provided technical support in implementation of facility based intervention of maternal and newborn health in UP. He also worked as divisional, zonal and state consultant in UNICEF from 2009 and provided technical support in the field of maternal health, newborn health, immunisation, nutrition and sanitation. Manoj has received MBBS degree from BRD Medical College Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh and MD Community Medicine from MLB Medical College Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh.
Divya Rajvanshi leads the program on demonstrating the utilization of digital health applications for improving patient and user journeys in Uttar Pradesh. She also provides strategic support and technical guidance on the design and implementation of the Comprehensive Primary Health Care digital application in coordination with GoUP and UP TSU program teams. Divya’s work is inclined towards ensuring data transparency, easing the workload of health frontline workers, and enabling the availability of robust beneficiary-level data, and generation of electronic health records, subsequently leading to reduced inequities in health service access and utilization in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Additionally, she also provides high-level strategic support on overall UPTSU programs encompassing policy support, planning, and program management.
Divya has an overall work experience of 12 years spread across technology, rural development, and public health domains. She has previously worked with Infosys Ltd, state rural livelihood missions of governments of Bihar and Telangana for improving rural livelihoods through the Self Help Group model. During her stint of over 7 years with UPTSU, Divya has been engaged in strategic and management support across programs in the MNCH domain at the community and facility levels. She has vast experience in designing programs, institutional capacity building, and project management. She holds a graduate degree in Instrumentation and Control Engineering from NIT Jalandhar and a Post Graduate Diploma in Forest Management (PGDFM) from Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, Madhya Prad
Sushant Jain, as Senior Specialist for Public Health, works on strengthening the health systems for improving delivery of health services at Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU). He is responsible for accelerating the health system outcomes through policy interventions, system designing and restructuring. His work across UP TSU has spanned across human resource systems, medical supply chain management, strategic planning & financial management and Public Private Partnership initiatives. The health systems work is expected to ensure sustainable designs which can improve the availability, quality and utilization of services and help the state of Uttar Pradesh move faster towards the SDG goals.
Sushant’s area of expertise includes policy advocacy and strategic management of public health initiatives by working closely with senior leadership within government. His forte lies in incorporating a health systems approach to planning, implementation, and monitoring of improved health outcomes His leadership and problem solving skills along with technical proficiency establishes credibility within the stakeholder base and strengthens the policy to practice outcomes.
He started his career with Bain & Company in the corporate sector and has brought strategic thinking and management learnings from that experience. Sushant has also worked across the Agriculture sector in Africa (Ethiopia), where he was working with a federal level agency which reports to the Prime Minister. He has worked at UP TSU since 2013 and has donned multiple hats over the years and has developed a strong understanding of UP health systems. Sushant has also presented a paper titled ‘Sustaining visceral leishmaniasis elimination in Bangladesh – a policy brief’ at the 6th World Congress on Leishmaniasis in 2017. He has also co-authored an internationally accredited academic paper, titled ‘Old Age Home Organizer’, which was published and presented at the WASET (World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology) conference in 2008. He has a Masters in Public Policy from University of Oxford and a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, New Delhi.
Thirumalai Narayanan leads the Madhya Pradesh Innovation Hub. In this role, Thirumalai leads the effort of partnering for public health innovations in Madhya Pradesh, this being first of its kind intervention within the existing Government Health System. He provides technical expertise in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Adolescent (RMNCH+A) Health, HIV, Tuberculosis and Health Systems Strengthening for the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) and National Health Mission (NHM) of Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP). Thirumalai leads a dynamic and innovative team embedded within DHS and works in close collaboration with the senior leadership of the government.
A development professional with a specialisation in hospital & health management, Thirumalai’s core competencies include intervention design, innovative capacity building techniques and monitoring & evaluation. With an expertise in the areas of RMNCH+A and Sexual & Reproductive Health, Thirumalai has implemented sector-specific interventions with a human centric approach in addressing the public health challenges across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Nagaland and Gujarat.
Before joining the innovation hub in Madhya Pradesh, Thirumalai was associated with IHAT’s Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU), where he led two rounds of the Rolling Facility Survey across Uttar Pradesh – one of the significant concurrent monitoring systems of the UP TSU. He has also worked with CARE India, Pathfinder International and Nutrition International and contributed immensely in the health sector. He holds a Postgraduate Degree in Health & Hospital Management from the Indian Institute of Health Management Research, Jaipur and Bachelors of Physiotherapy from the Tamil Nadu Government Medical University.
Bharat Karunakar Shetty is currently working as a Team leader for the Uttar Pradesh State Technical Support Unit for TB – National TB Elimination Program (UP STSU – NTEP). He provides technical and strategic support to the multidisciplinary team for the TB elimination program in the state working closely with State TB Cell, Government of Uttar Pradesh. The role also envisages providing insights into the healthcare projects with the state government, public-private partnerships, large scale transformation engagements.
Bharat’s areas of expertise include management of large scale public health programs in HIV, TB, Social Protection of HIV/AIDS Orphan and Children and more recently integrating Sustainable Energy Solutions into the public health facilities focusing Maternal and Child Health, Immunization and NCD value chain. He played a key role in designing and implementing these community level interventions.
Bharat served as a Team Leader for the Health and Energy Nexus Intervention in SELCO Foundation and facilitated the scale up of these interventions in 200 public health facilities in Meghalaya, Manipur, Odisha, Karnataka, Nagaland and Assam. Prior to this, he was associated with Karnataka Health Promotion Trust in various capacities, handling TB and HIV projects.
Bharat has done his Post Graduation in Health Sciences with Public Health Specialization from University of Pune. He also has 12 publications in National and International Journals as co-authors on various public health issues. He has also successfully completed two-year International Infectious Disease and Global Health Training Program (IID&GHTP) from the University of Manitoba, Canada.
Dr. Shajy K. Isac is the Managing Trustee of India Health Trust (IHAT).
As a development professional, Shajy provides strategic direction to global initiatives on HIV and AIDS, Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition and Health Systems Strengthening. He also leads efforts to forge new collaborations and partnerships and provides key technical advice to governments in various low and middle income countries.
With well-acknowledged expertise as a researcher, demographer and statistician, Shajy has been deeply involved with public health research and the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of programs for decades. He has led M&E frameworks for HIV prevention and care, and maternal and child health programs in Asia, Africa and Europe. Shajy believes that it is his desire to address critical public health issues that has led him into this domain of work within the development space.
Shajy has spearheaded a number of studies of global relevance. He has authored over 100 peer reviewed papers, which have been published in global journals. He has mentored research students from India and abroad. Shajy has held several significant positions in global consortiums like the World Bank, United Nations, AIDS control programs in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.
He received his Doctorate of Philosophy from the International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai.