Shirish N. Kavadi

In the early 1920s, the Rockefeller Foundation conducted an anti-hookworm campaign in Madras Presidency with the objective of controlling hookworm infection. However, the larger aim was to use it as an entry point for extensive sanitary measures and public health education. Two decades later infection rates remained constant while sanitation made l...

The Lady Tata Memorial Trust, established in 1932 in Bombay, was among the earliest philanthropic foundations created to support leukaemia research globally. Very little was known about leukaemia, a major mystery in medical science, at the time. The trust provided fellowships and grants to some of the leading international researchers and contribut...

The Rockefeller Foundation was among the earliest international agencies that contributed to the development of western medicine and public health in India. The RF's entry into India coincided with the introduction the Government of India Act of 1919 that devolved responsibility for public health and medical education to the provinces. The Act also...

The Rockefeller Foundation’s public health intervention in colonial India occurred at the intersection of two processes: the internationalisation of health in which India was viewed as a key node in the generation and transmission of knowledge about health in the Indian Ocean region; and, constitutional decentralisation of health administration cou...

Scholars and commentators have for long recognized and highlighted the strikingly noticeable paradox of Indian democracy. A healthy and firm formal or political democracy co-exists with a feeble and frail democratic culture in the social, cultural and economic realms. What India practices and imagines is a fractured democracy witnessed in the const...

In 1965, the University of Pennsylvania (U Penn) published Spoken Marathi Book 1. First Year Intensive Course, a reader co-written by my father Naresh B Kavadi (1922-2000) and Franklin C Southworth, (1929—present). The 252 page book, which continues to be used at U Penn and other universities, is among the earliest readers in an Indian language to...

This chapter investigates foreign aid to developing research and training in preventive medicine, specifically virus research, in the first decade and a half of independent India. The discussion is situated in the larger context of the Rockefeller Foundation’s (RF) global virus program and outreach and Cold War politics. It explores the intertwined...

The chapter examines the various debates, developments, and attempts to reform medical care in the early years after independence, with a special focus on medical education and the development of the pharmaceutical industry, in two sections. These are examined in the context of India’s endeavors toward development, modernization, and nation-buildin...

The Rockefeller Foundation was among the earliest international agencies that contributed to the development of western medicine and public health in India. The RF's entry into India coincided with the introduction the Government of India Act of 1919 that devolved responsibility for public health and medical education to the provinces. The Act also...

This article through a historical overview attempted to highlight the contradictions that have marred government medical education and personnel policies since independence. It has further shown how these contradictions have had a bearing on the provision of .quality and accessible medical care to the population.

Tata medical philanthropy in colonial India was not confined to investing in bricks and mortar but also aimed at creating a culture of medical research. https://connect.iisc.ac.in/2020/03/the-tatas-and-medical-research-in-india/

This note presents a brief account of the ideas and efforts of V.R. Khanolkar in the period 1952 to 1962 to develop the Indian Cancer Research Centre into a ‘centre of excellence’. Khanolkar who is recognized as a pioneer in cancer research in India focused on developing multidisciplinary medical research and mentored and trained young medical rese...

This article presents a brief account of the founding of the Tata Memorial Hospital. It draws upon archival material to show that this was not a mere philanthropic act but a scheme carefully thought-out by the Trustees of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. It discusses the major concerns of the Trustees as they deliberated upon establishing the Hospital.

From 1939 to 1945, John Black Grant a Rockefeller Foundation officer and former Professor of Public Health at the Peking Union Medical College served as the Director of the All Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta. Grant’s India tenure is important for his efforts to ameliorate the condition of public health in India. Much has been writ...

In the early twentieth century leukaemia was a major mystery in medical science. Research into the disease was constrained by lack of or inadequate funding. The Lady Tata Memorial Trust (LTMT) established in 1932 in Bombay was among the earliest philanthropic efforts to provide fellowships and grants to some of the leading researchers in Europe and...

Autonomy for Medical Institutes in India: A View from History Shirish N Kavadi In India the inter-linked questions of government control of medical research institutes and institutional autonomy have been contested and contentious issues since colonial times. The article briefly recapitulates the status of medical institutes during the colonial pe...

With the internet becoming essential for education, communication, livelihoods and government services and entitlements, access to the internet is no longer a privilege or luxury. Those who do not have access to the internet (or have rudimentary or limited access) will fall further and further behind in the digital age. The CCDS study examines the...

This essay examines the role of John B Grant, an officer of the Rockefeller Foundation and Director , All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta as a member of the Health Survey and Development Committee(1943) also known as the Bhore Committee. This was written as a response to an article by Pratima Murthy, Alok Sarin and Sanjeev Ja...

The role of philanthropy in the institutionalization and professionalization of modern medicine and public health in western societies has been well documented. In colonial India the colonial authorities, Indian philanthropists and international medical philanthropy represented by the Rockefeller Foundation, motivated by different considerations we...

In the 1950s the Government of India (GoI) and the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) initiated a joint scheme to strengthen the structure and system of medical education and research in India. In pre-independence India the RF had administered a fellowship program to train Indian doctors in American universities and medical schools. On return they were ex...

The issue of autonomy in AIIMS is not a new one. It goes back to its formation in the 1950s, when the seeds of the present tussle were sown.

The book includes ten selected contributions to the Fourth International Conference of the European Association for the History of Medicine and Health and to the Third Conference of the International Network for the History of Public Health, held togehter in September 1999, and edited by Esteban Rodríguez-Ocaña.

Available information on health expenditure in India is inadequate and unreliable, making sound health policy formulation and planning difficult. This is particularly so with investment made and expenditure incurred by health providers. This lacuna is felt all the more where the private sector dominates the provision of health care. This study is...

This book is a cross-country, comparative inquiry into the systems of delivering and financing health care world-wide. Ever since WHO's goal of 'Health for Alll by 2000' was accepted by all countries, three issues have been the focus of policy debate and research. These are: 1) the expansion of basic medical care coverage and access 2)raising the...