Applying Lessons Learned from COVID for a Stronger Health System: Delhi, India

Balram Bhargava is Professor of Cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and serves as the Executive Director for Stanford India Biodesign Centre, School of International Biodesign (SiB). Currently he is on deputation as Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research cum Secretary Department of Health Research, Government of India. He started the Society for Less Investigative Medicine (SLIM) and has published several papers on the harmful cardiovascular effects of chewing tobacco and has led major trials in India.

Dr. Gupta is Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins and Faculty Co-chair of the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute. She specializes in international public health, clinical research and education in infectious diseases (HIV, tuberculosis, and antimicrobial resistance). She has led 4 global trials of HIV/TB prevention, published over 220 papers, and mentored numerous trainees. Her focus is primarily on India, where she leads several Indo-JHU research collaborations. She is also US chair for the Indo-US Vaccine Action Program sponsored RePORT India consortium, and Co-Chair for TB Science for International Maternal Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Network. In 2019, she was appointed to Anthony Fauci’s NIAID Council. In 2020, she was invited to the Governing Board of the Indo-U.S. Science & Technology Forum

Raj Gupta Co-Chair of Board of Advisors. Johns Hopkins Gupta-Klinsky India Institute. Mr Gupta was born in a small village in Uttar Pradesh, India and built a 39-year career at the global Fortune 500 specialty materials company Rohm and Haas and retired as Chairman and CEO in April 2009. In the course of his career, he has served as a director at 15 public companies including Hewlett Packard, DuPont, Tyco, Delphi/Aptiv, and Avantor. He has served on six private company boards including Vanguard group and was long term Chairman at Delphi/Aptiv and Avantor. He and Kamla Gupta, his wife of 54 years, founded Ujala Foundation with a focus on education and healthcare.

Professor Kang is a physician scientist working on vaccines and public health, particularly focused on children and enteric infectious disease in India. Her inter-disciplinary research on the transmission, development and prevention of enteric infections and their sequela in children in India has led to new insights and practical approaches to prevention. She is an elected Fellow of all the Indian science academies, and is the first Indian woman to be elected to Fellowship of the American Academy of Microbiology and to the Royal Society and the only physician-scientist to receive the Infosys Award in Life Sciences.

Amitabh Kant is presently CEO of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog). He has been the Chairman & CEO of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC). In his capacity as Secretary (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) Govt. of India, he vigorously drove the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ initiative and ranking of States on outcome parameters. He is the Chairman of the Committee to implement Digital Payment in India and is the recipient of One Globe Award-2016 for leadership in Transforming Governance for the 21st Century.

Steve Klinsky, 65, is an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Professionally, he is the founder and chief executive officer of New Mountain Capital, LLC., which manages over $35 billion of private equity, public equity and debt fund commitments. New Mountain’s motto is “Building Great Businesses”, and the firm has added or created over 49,000 jobs at its portfolio companies during its period of ownership, net of any job losses. Charitably, Mr. Klinsky has started or led a range of non-profits, chiefly in the areas of education and children’s health. He is the founder of the Gary Klinsky Children Centers, the Sisulu Walker Charter School (which was the first charter school to open in the State of New York), Victory Schools, the Great Oaks Foundation, the Constance Klinsky Medical Clinics in the Central African Republic, and the Steve and Maureen Klinsky Professorship of Leadership and Social Progress at Harvard Law School. Most recently, he founded the Modern States Education Alliance which has over 300,000 registered users, and provides universal access to tuition-free college courses online from top university professors. He is the chair of Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, former chairman of the American Investment Council, and has chaired or served on numerous corporate and not-for-profit boards. Mr. Klinsky was raised in Michigan. He earned his B.A. with high honors from the University of Michigan in 1976, his MBA from Harvard Business School (class of 1979) and his J.D., with honors, from Harvard Law School (class of 1981). He was co-founder of Goldman Sachs & Co.’s original Leveraged Buyout Group (1981-1984), and a partner of Forstmann Little & Co. from 1984 until leaving to found New Mountain in June 1999. He is married to the novelist and screenwriter Maureen Sherry. Together, they have four children, and live in New York City.

A former director of a major investment bank, Maureen Klinsky, 58, switched gears in 2005 to write professionally. Her work has appeared in many publications including Fortune and the New York Times, and she has published two novels, Walls Within Walls and Opening Belle. Maureen’s volunteer board work focuses on college affordability, charter school advocacy, financial literacy and clean water initiatives.

Sunil Kumar took office as the 15th provost of Johns Hopkins University on September 1, 2016. In this role, Kumar is the chief academic officer and second-ranking member of the senior administration, responsible for promoting and coordinating the University’s teaching and research mission. He oversees the university’s nine schools as well as several interdisciplinary programs and academic centers. As Provost, Kumar has focused on increasing inter-divisional research and education collaborations across the University; recruiting exceptional faculty to Johns Hopkins through the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorship program and the Faculty Diversity Initiative; enhancing the student experience by leading the Student Services Excellence Initiative, strengthening the career services function at the University for undergraduate and graduate students; and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across the divisions. Kumar also chairs the University’s inaugural Tenure Advisory Committee (TAC). Prior to his current role, Kumar served as Dean of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, as well as the George Pratt Shultz Professor of Operations Management. Before joining the Booth School of Business, he spent 14 years on the faculty of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he was the Fred H. Merrill Professor of Operations, Information and Technology. He also served as senior associate dean for academic affairs, overseeing the school’s MBA program and leading faculty groups in marketing and organizational behavior. Kumar’s research includes performance evaluation and control of manufacturing systems, service operations, and communications networks. In particular, he studies systems affected by stochastic variability via mathematical models. He also studies application of optimization methods and control theory to managerial problems. Born in India, Kumar received a Master of Engineering degree in computer science and automation from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Mangalore University in Surathkal. He earned a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

David Peters is an internationally renowned expert in health systems who has worked as a researcher, policy advisor, educator, manager, and clinician in dozens of low and middle-income countries and has worked on collaborative research, education, and health systems strengthening in India for over 25 years. His work seeks to improve the performance of health systems through implementation science and policy translation, and by building institutional capacity through innovations in organization, technology, and financing of health systems. He is a Professor and Chair of the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and co-Chair of the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

Professor K. Srinath Reddy, as PHFI President has established five Indian Institutes of Public Health (IIPHs) to advance multi-disciplinary public health education, research, health technologies, and implementation support for strengthening health system. He is the first Indian to be elected to the National Academy of Medicine, USA and was awarded several prestigious international and national doctorates and fellowships. He was also President of the World Heart Federation and formerly headed the Department of Cardiology at AIIMS, New Delhi. He is a Padma Bhushan awardee and Advisor to the Governments of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh on Health.

Naghma Sahar has been a journalist/anchor for the last 23 years. Previously with Aaj Tak, and then has been a senior editor with NDTV. She has reported on all major general elections since 2000 besides doing special socio-political reporting, which includes coverage on the impact of monsoon on common people across the country and devastation caused by Tsunami in Chennai. Naghma has also been anchoring NDTV’s Sunday Prime talk show, Hum Log, besides the everyday news bulletin.

Dr. Naresh Trehan, an Indian national, is a renowned Cardiovascular and Cardiothoracic surgeon, a graduate from King George Medical College and subsequently trained and practiced at New York University Medical Center Manhattan USA from 1971 to 1988, where he obtained a Diplomat from the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Dr Naresh Trehan is the Chairman & Managing Director and Chief Cardiac Surgeon, Medanta-The MediCity, a 1500 bedded multi super speciality institute, which offers cutting edge technology and state of art treatment facilities at an affordable cost. The Institute is governed under the guiding principles of providing medical services to patients with care, compassion and commitment. Dr. Naresh Trehan founded the Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre where he was the Executive Director. Escorts was conceptualised, created and managed by Dr. Trehan from November 1987 to May 2007. Dr. Naresh Trehan has received many prestigious awards, including the Padma Shree and the Padma Bhushan Award, presented by the Government of India. Dr Naresh Trehan was the President of the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery (ISMICS), Minneapolis, USA 2004-05 and has also received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from three prestigious universities.