Our Governing Council Members
Meet the Visionaries Guiding Our Journey.
Dr. Nirmala Murthy
Founder MEMBER
She is the Founder of Foundation for Research in Health Systems (FRHS). She holds a Master’s degree in Statistics from the Bombay University, and a doctorate from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA. In 1974, she joined the faculty of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, doing research and training in the area of public health management.
She is a specialist in Health Information Systems, monitoring & Evaluation of Health and Welfare programs and has designed several management training programs for health care providers working at different levels in public health system. She has published over 50 research papers, in journals and books, in her area of expertise.
Dr. S. Krishna
PRESIDENT
S. Krishna is a former professor and chairperson of the Information systems and Decision sciences area, IIM-B. He was on the faculty of IISc, Bangalore & Raman Research Institute and previously with the Department of IT, Government of India at New Delhi. His principal domains of research and professional work are Software and IT management, e-governance and public health systems. He holds Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and in Theoretical Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K), India.
Prof Krishna was member of the core group which setup the National Informatics Centre, New Delhi for supporting decision making at top levels of the Government of India at New Delhi and subsequently expanded to all of India. He has been a consultant to the Indian Banks Association on setting up the first ATM networks and the National Judicial Commission in Reorganising legal processes in Indian Courts.
Prof Krishna has studied Global Work Arrangements of the Software Industry with field work in India, North America, Europe, Japan, Korea and Singapore. He has been a visiting Research scholar at Business School of Cambridge University U.K and the London School of Economics London, Chairperson of several international conferences including Globally Distributed Work conferences in 2006 and 2008 and IFIP WG9.4 Conference on Information Systems in Developing Societies. At IIM-B he set up and directed a highly rated MBA program for managers of software industry and a global executive management program in collaboration with University of California, Los Angeles, SDA Bocconi, Milan and City University of Hong Kong.
Prof Krishna has published over 50 research papers, many in top tier international journals. Books authored/coauthored by him are: Global IT Outsourcing: Software Development across borders (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) and The Digital Challenge: Information Technology in the Development Context (Ashgate, London) and Introduction to Database and Knowledge base Systems (World Scientific, Singapore).
Prof Krishna has been a consultant to the World Bank for designing an integrated information system for public health management for Karnataka. He has also been a consultant to Microsoft Research Laboratories and Wellcome Trust UK. His recent research projects have been on improving effectiveness of Village health and Sanitation committees in Karnataka.
Professor P S S Sundar Rao
MEMBER
Professor P S S Sundar Rao obtained his Master’s degree in Statistics from Madras University, his Master’s in Biostatistics from University of California in Berkeley, USA and his Doctorate in Biostatistics from Columbia Univetrsity,New York,USA. He is a Fellow of Royal Statistical Society,London and a Fellow of the Indian Society for Medical Statistics. Prof Rao founded the first department of Biostatistics in India at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, where he worked for nearly 40 years. Later he became the Director of Schieffelin Leprosy Research and Training Centre at Karigiri Tamilnadu for 10 years and then was appointed as the Head of Research at the Leprosy Mission Trust India for nearly 10 years.
During his tenure in these places he was a guide and supervisor for MSc and PhD scholars in Biostatistics, and established major research programs, both national and international.He was the recipient of the Lifetime achievement Award by the Indian Society for Medical Statistics, and has several awards from CMC,ICMR. He has over 300 scientific publications ina variety of fields including population genetics, epidemiology of child growth and nutrition, leprosy, indigenous medicine and cultures, clinical epidemiology, etc., being the coauthor for several publications. Prof.Rao was a public health specialist and served on several committees of the Indian Council of Medical Research as Chair and member, including National Cancer Registries and Nutrition Research.His book “Introduction to Biostatistics and Research Methods” is published by PHI Learning ,now in 5th edition, is used as standard textbook in many colleges and Universities. Prof.Rao is an adjunct Professor of Biostatistics and research at the Martin Luthe in r Christian University in Shillong,Meghalaya and serves as Chair of Ethics Committee at Holdswoth Memorial Hospital,Mysuru for approving researches of the PG of the National Board in Medicine. He is also a Consultant for several Foundations and remains active in helping research and publications of public health scholars.
Dr. Leela Visaria
Member
Leela Visaria, Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University is an Honorary Professor and a former Director at Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad. Her research has been in historical demography, health, family planning, education and demographic transition. She has authored several peer-reviewed articles and has co-authored or edited seven books including Twenty-first Century India: Population, Economy, Human Development and the Environment in 2004; Abortion in India: Ground Realities in 2007 and India’s Family Planning Programme, 2017. She was awarded National Professorship during 2009-10 by the Indian Council for Social Science Research. She was the first President-elect of Asian Population Association during 2009-2010.
Dr. SATEESH. V.L
MEMBER
Dr. Sateesh V.L was born in Bangalore on 22nd April 1953, schooling was in Bangalore, Passed MBBS from Bangalore Medical College in 1975. Underwent training in Hospital and Health systems management, obtained M Phil degree from BITS Pilani and P G Diploma in Medical Law and Ethics from NLSU Bangalore.
He had served Indian Army as short service officer in Army Medical Corps, served as Assistant Surgeon in Karnataka Govt Health of Family Welfare Department for about 4 years and subsequently in NIMHANS, Bangalore for about 27 years. Retired as Medical Superintendent in the year 2015. Post retirement worked as Associate Medical Superintendent at St Johns Medical College Hospital Bangalore and thereafter as Guest Faculty, Department of Hospital Administration in the same Medical College.
His areas of interest are Medical Law and Quality in Health care.
Ms. Usha Raghunath
Member
Ms. Usha Raghunath is FRHS’ Governing Council member from Oct 2016. She has done her MBA in International Business Strategy from OUBS, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. Ms. Usha Raghunath brings more than 30 years of wide-ranging professional experience of working with a wide range of organizations, from startups to well-established global organizations. A large share of her experience is with the Information Technology industry and more recently with Digital Transformations across industry verticals.
Ms. Usha has experience of leading organization transformation initiatives in the US, UK, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, Malaysia and across Europe in Portugal, France, Germany, Hungary, Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Ms. Usha is a visiting faculty for business and digital transformation, design thinking, entrepreneurship and human and organizational behavior in many business and engineering schools, including the Indian Institute of Management.
Mr. R. C. Chib
founder MEMBER
Mr. R. C. Chib is a Founder Member of FRHS’ Governing Council. He retired as the Chief Administrative Officer, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and has played an important role in establishing the by-laws and functional guidelines of FRHS in its formative year. He remains the administrative advisor to FRHS team.
