Dr. Meenakshi Gautham

Dr. Meenakshi Gautham has a PhD degree in Public Health and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a Masters� degree in Child Development from the Lady Irwin College, Delhi University. She has worked in the health and development sector in the Indian sub-continent for close to 20 years. Since completing her PhD in 2006, Meenakshi has been actively engaged with developments and reforms in the Indian health sector, especially those related to health services and human resources.

Meenakshi has an abiding interest in innovations for improving access to good quality and affordable health services in rural areas. With RTBI, Meenakshi has been driving the First Care Health Enterprise since April 2007. She is also currently engaged in Health Micro Insurance Research in India with Professor David D Dror of the University of Erasmus, Rotterdam.

Ms. Suma Prashant,Project Manager (Rural Health Initiatives)

Suma Prashant completed her Masters in Public Health in 2006, that focussed on Environmental and Occupational Health. She worked for two years doing research and outreach applications around environmental health related issues. Prior to that she also has another Masters in Environmental Engineering (2002) and three years of experience in building pilot-scale sustainable wastewater treatment systems.

Her interests includes understanding the usage of ICT in delivering services to rural India; supporting of venture outcomes and scalability, researching on different wastewater filtration methods for smaller communities and its economical impact, and building realistic solutions for real-time issues.

Dr. M. Ganesan

Dr. M. Ganesan, M.Sc. Ph.D. studied Rural Development at Arul Anandar College affiliated to Madurai Kamaraj University in Madurai from 1989 to 1991. After his post graduation degree, he worked in the Economist Group as Economic Investigator for one and a half years. From March 1995 to June 2006, he had been working as Project Associate in the cadre of Scientist at M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. While he was with this foundation, he worked on his doctoral programme and was awarded the Ph.D. degree for his work on "Standardization of low cost poly/greenhouse technology for enhancing tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) productivity and characterization of the products" by the Madurai Kamaraj University in August 2006. In October, 2006, he joined as Core Trainer at State Institute of Rural Development under Induction course on Vazhndhu Kaattuvom Project funded by World Bank and worked for almost 10 months.

Currently, he is working as Project Field Co-ordinator at IITM's Rural Technology and Business Incubator.

Ms. Vincy , Project Assistant and Web Master

Vincy received her Bachelors degree in Computer Science from the University of Madras and is currently pursuing a Masters� in Computer Applications. She has been developing web applications with First Care for more than a year, bringing to her work a skilful combination of technical knowledge and creative thinking. She creates different types of front and back end web applications that are an intrinsic component of First Care�s services and deliverables.

Vincy�s interests include implementing and experimenting with different technology platforms for rural networks. She will be leading the development of mobile telephony, voice technology and other cutting edge technology applications at First care.

N. Janakiraman, Field Venture Co-ordinator - Consultant, RTBI.

N. Janakiraman has a Master degree in Social Work from the Urumu Dhanalakshmi College, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli. He has worked in the AIDS Prevention and control project with various reputed non governmental organizations for two and a half years. Janakiraman is keenly interested in working with innovative field based enterprises in rural areas. His present focus is on closely interacting with village community and informally trained private healthcare providers in rural areas where qualified doctors are not available. With RTBI, Janakiraman is working as health venture field coordinator-consultant.

Dr K M Shyamprasad, MNAMS. M.CH. FRCS, FIACS

Dr. Shyamprasad is a renowned expert in the field of Medical Education and Health Sciences education. He is a member of the Governing Body and Institute Body of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. During the last two decades he has also held other eminent positions in leading medical institutions. He has been Chairman of Governance of the Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, member of the Governing Body of CMC, Vellore, and member of the Standing Selection Committee of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences at Chandigarh. He was a member of the task force on medical education of the Government of India's National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) that recommended alternative education models for developing rural health care providers in India.

After his basic medical education from CMC Vellore, south India, Dr. Shyamprasad trained both in India and Europe as a cardiothoracic surgeon. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh (FRCS). After a decade of tertiary medical care and hospital administration (1994 to 2004), he decided to devote himself full time to health and development programs. Dr Shyamprasad is currently Vice-President (Surgical Specialties) of the National Board of Examinations, the Apex post graduate medical education body under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, where he initiated a new course in �Rural Surgery� with the objective of developing emergency surgical care specialists for remote rural hospitals. He currently also serves as the Chancellor of the Martin Luther Christian University in Meghalaya.

Dr. Shyamprasad brings to First care his commitment, interest and medical expertise in aligning health education with the health needs of needy populations, by increasing the relevance and outreach of health training programmes.

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Dr Rajesh Singh, MS

Dr Rajesh Singh, is a trained physician cum general surgeon from Christian Medical College, Ludhiana. He runs a 15-bedded rural hospital in district Tehri Garhwal in Uttarakhand. The hospital was established in 1993 and has grown as a critical care centre for emergencies and surgical care for the surrounding remote and hilly region. Dr Singh�s hospital and its affiliated outreach organization � the Garhwal Community Development and Welfare Society (GCDWS)-has been recognized by the state government as a �mother NGO�. GCDWS has extensive experience of health outreach work with local communities and village based healthcare providers.