Executive Director
Dr. Rajiv Tandon is a global advocate and practitioner in Public Health and Nutrition with over 40
years of clinical and community experience. Trained in medicine with an MD Pediatrics, he has been
proactively engaged with health policy reforms and public health programs at global, national and
subnational levels. He has served as senior leader of large-scale public health programs and a
representative for engaging with Government systems and policies, through roles with organisations
like USAID, Save the Children, PATH, RTI International India, Action Against Hunger, and Rotary
International. He has been a visiting professor to various academic institutions, including MGIMS,
KLE University, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences. Rajiv has also shaped and led
initiatives to foster consensus building across stakeholders and constituency groups through
coalitions like the Parliamentarians Group for Malaria Elimination, RMNCAH Coalition, Partnership
for Maternal Newborn Child Health, Coalition for Sustainable Nutrition Secure India, amongst others
Senior Advisor – Health Systems
Rajeev Sadanandan is a former Indian Administrative Service officer with extensive experience in health policy and governance. He has served as Health Secretary of Kerala, CEO of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (India’s national health insurance program), and held various key positions in state and union governments. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was Advisor to the Chief Minister of Kerala on pandemic management. Rajeev has worked with UNAIDS and contributed to technical committees for UNAIDS and WHO. He was a Commissioner on the Lancet Global Health Commission on Financing Primary Health Care and is currently a member of the Technical Advisory Panel of The Pandemic Fund and WHO’s Roster of Experts for Joint External Evaluation. Recently, he served as CEO of the Health System Transformation Platform, a New Delhi-based think tank. Alongside advising state governments, Rajeev is actively engaged in enhancing primary health care in his village.
Senior Advisor – Neglected
Tropical Diseases (VBDs)
Dr. Ashwani Kumar, currently Pro Vice-Chancellor at Saveetha University, previously directed the
ICMR-Vector Control Research Centre in Puducherry. He’s also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown
University, USA, and involved with NM Veeriyan University, Arakkonam. A Gold Medalist with a PhD
in Entomology, he was elected Fellow of the Punjab Academy of Sciences. With over 37 years of
experience in vector-borne diseases, Dr. Kumar managed numerous national and international
projects, including serving as Director-In-Charge of the National Animal Research Facility for
Biomedical Research in Hyderabad. Trained at prestigious institutions like the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and WHO, Dr. Kumar’s expertise extends globally. He was invited
to observe vector control operations in California, USA, solidifying his impact on global health
research.
Senior Advisor –
Gender and Health
Priya is a feminist researcher, strategist with gender and SRHR expertise as well skills in evaluation,
research and program implementation. She has over two decades of research and philanthropic
experience in analyzing and designing policies and programs that solve complex gender norms and
health systems problems from a gender lens. She has led research, programmatic, and policy
advocacy initiatives focusing on the intersections between gender, health and economic
empowerment at various organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (India Office),
International Center for Research on Women (Asia), Center for Health and Gender Equity. She has a
decade of experience on conceptualising and evaluating adolescent girls’ empowerment programs
and served as the Co-Director of the ODI led research consortium on Gender and Adolescence:
Global Evidence. She is also a recent alumnus of the Women Lift Health Leadership program, and
its first India Alumni lead. She holds a PhD in Health Economics from the Johns Hopkins University,
a MIA from Columbia University and a MA and BA in Economics from the University of Delhi/Delhi
School of Economics.
Senior Advisor –
Social Medicine & Community Health
Dr. Rajib Dasgupta served a decade (1993-2003) with the Epidemiology Division of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and is currently Professor at the Center of Social Medicine & Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was Fulbright Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2010-11) and Visiting Professor, University of Technology Sydney (2016). He is closely engaged with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the National Certification Committee for Polio Eradication (NCCPE) and the National Health Mission as well as several other key national health programs and evaluations.Widely published in national and international journals, he is currently the editor of the Indian Journal of Public Health and was earlier Managing Editor of the Indian Journal of Community Medicine. He is a columnist in several national newspapers and a regular commentator on public health matters in national and international electronic media.
Senior Advisor – Health and
Nutrition
Dr. Sebanti Ghosh is a public health expert and nutrition expert who has been working for over 25
years in the domain of Maternal, Newborn / Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition policy and
programming related technical support across India and South Asian countries. Currently she is the
Regional Senior Technical Advisor – Nutrition, South Asia with Alive and Thrive FHI360, since
October 2021 and immediately prior to assuming a regional role, she was the Country Director for
Alive and Thrive India for over 5 years. She has been working in leadership positions at national level
for the last 10 years and prior to that at the state level for over 12 years providing high quality
technical assistance to national and state governments, development partners including UN
agencies and donors, medical colleges, and public health nutrition institues, professional medical
associations and national NGOs/CSOs in India.
Senior Advisor – Disease Control
With over 32 years of experience at the Ministry of Health and FW, Government of India, Dr. Sujeet Singh has held pivotal roles at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases. His career highlights include serving as Airport Health Officer at Delhi Airport, Deputy Director General (International Health & Mental Health), and Director of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) from 2018 to 2022. He is a medical graduate from GR Medical College, Gwalior, holding Diplomas in Child Health and MD in Community Medicine.His contributions are extensive, having led nationwide surveys to estimate the burden of Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STH) using the Kato-katz technique. Renowned for his leadership in managing outbreaks such as AES, Zika, Nipah, and COVID-19, he has also overseen national programs addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR), climate change, and viral hepatitis control. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he played a critical role in national task forces and established INSACOG, the national genome sequencing network across over 50 labs. He continues to influence public health strategy as a member of expert groups on preventing future pandemics and restructuring NCDC.
Advisor – RMNCH+A
Dr. Meenakshi has more than 20 years of experience in Health and Development sector and has
been focused on program design and management; monitoring and evaluation; government liaising
and partner coordination etc. She has served many organisations as a technical expert and leader,
including WISH Foundation, IntraHealth International, and USAID India. She was the Project lead of
the BMGF supported Concurrent Learnings on Complications in Maternal and Newborn Care project
in Uttar Pradesh, India for Foundation for Research in Health Systems. She holds her Bachelor
degree in Medicine and Surgery and has completed her MD in Community Medicine from University
of Delhi. She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Hospital and Health Management from Indira
Gandhi National Open University, Delhi
Director Finance and Human Resources
Arun Monga, B.Com (Hons), CA is a financial consultant with more than 40 years of experience in managing finance, administra on and compliances in the development sector. Currently, as a consultant, he provides advice and guidance in the areas of finance, administration, regulatory matters, audits, setting up an organization in India and strengthening internal controls. He has worked in diverse environments and organizations and brings in a wealth of experience in financial management and accounting, budgeting, audits and donor coordination. Arun’s expertise in finance and accounting is well complimented by his professional qualifications.
Advisor – Food Fortification
Dr. Subrata Dutta is a seasoned public health expert with over 25 years of experience in global
pediatric environmental health, public health, infant & maternal nutrition. He served numerous
international development agencies as Country Director and India Representative. He led many global public health initiatives & projects as part of agencies like Centres for Disease Control and Presentation, USA, UNICEF, Pure-earth, USA, Nutrition International, Tata Trusts, Scquoia Foundation, Christian Aid etc. Recently, he served as Senior Advisor to India’s energy Infrastructure Development Program of Govt of India focusing on energy-efficient solar infrastructure in public health institutions across several states. Dr. Dutta has introduced large-scale public health programs addressing malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, birth defects, anaemia, rickets, and toxic pollution, impacting millions across India. He spearheaded Asia’a largest initiative like ‘fortified food’ distribution in India benefiting 80 millions for eradication of hidden hunger and malnutrition. His contributions include shaping India’s national anaemia control, birth defects prevention, IYCF, food fortification policy and capacity-building collaborations with Govt of India, UN’s international organizations. A pioneer in addressing toxic pollution’s impact on child health, he formed a consortium involving few UN & international agencies and commissioned few critical environmental assessment studies. Dr. Dutta’s initiatives exemplify transformative solutions for health and nutrition, driving systemic improvements across sectors. His few public health advocacy initiates with policy makers of different countries in Southeast Asia were also augured well.
Lead- Health Emergencies
Mr. Moitra has over 35 years of experience in global humanitarian and development organizations with expertise in programme planning, monitoring and management. He has managed large scale humanitarian response, designed and implemented disaster risk reduction strategies and plans, and implemented social protection – cash transfer programmes. He has led and managed response to refugee crisis, large scale drought and health emergencies, and has significant experience in resilience and humanitarian – development nexus programming in different countries. He has many years of work on community organisation and institution building, and is experiences in rights-based programming, social accountability and decentralisation. He has led country and area programmes, managed large programme budgets, conducted strategic planning and managed risks. Mr. Moitra has worked in India, Nepal, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Zambia, Nigeria, Lebanon and Ethiopia.
Technical Specialist
Ruchika Arora is a public health professional with more than 12 years of experience of working in
public health systems strengthening and programming across India. She holds a Masters in Public
Health from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and a Diploma in Population Sciences from the
International Institute of Population Sciences. She has worked extensively with various development
partners, as well as with the Government of India at national and state levels, on issues of
RMNCH+A, and has deep expertise on research, learning and evaluation around health systems,
nutrition, maternal and child health, and neglected tropical diseases. She has been involved in and
led key research projects and large-scale surveys with the United Nations, World Food Programme,
American India Foundation, and the National Health Systems Research Center.
Manager – Project Development and Strategic Partnerships
Alka Chadha brings over 13 years of experience in public health consulting, grant writing, donor engagement, and project management. She has previously worked with PwC, IQVIA, the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), the National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC), and India HIV/AIDS Alliance, where she contributed to securing and managing multiple donor-funded public health initiatives.
She has worked on and managed large-scale program evaluations, Health Systems strengthening, policy research and advocacy projects across maternal and child health, nutrition, non-communicable diseases, and HIV/AIDS supported by leading development partners, including the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), UNICEF, UNDP, WHO, the European Union, Wellcome Trust, and Tata Trusts.
She has developed a wide range of technical documents, including business proposals, academic grant applications, technical reports, and donor reporting and communication materials.
Alka currently leads the Health Technology Assessment of the Vayu Bubble CPAP in India while supporting project development and strategic partnerships for the organisation.
She holds a Masters degree in Health Administration from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.
© 2023 The Health Continuum | All Right Reserved
