Reflections on Leading India’s National Health Organizations
K. Sujatha Rao served as Union Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the government of India until 2010, where she was involved in the first ever national program for non-communicable diseases; the process for a national policy for use of antibiotics; and introducing vaccines in public health. Previously she was Director General of the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) from 2006-2009, where she was instrumental in establishing systems and building up NACO with a capacity to implement programs with a five-fold budget increase. She has represented India on boards of the WHO, Global Fund and UNAIDS. Ms. Rao was previously a Takemi Fellow for International Health at Harvard School of Public Health (1993). She is currently the first Gro Harlem Brundtland Senior Leadership Fellow at Harvard School of Public Health.
