Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Chief Advisor to Population Services International, India, addressed IIMB’s EPGP students on ‘Strategic Planning, Management & Leadership: Global Health in the Indian Context’ on July 29
02 August, 2021, Bengaluru: Dr. Rakesh Kumar, MD, a 1992 batch IAS officer of Uttarakhand cadre, addressed the students of the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP) at IIM Bangalore on ‘Strategic Planning, Management & Leadership: Global Health in the Indian Context’, as part of the EPGP Seminar Series, on July 29 (Thursday), 2021.
Dr. Kumar is currently the Chief Advisor to Population Services International, India, leading the USAID-funded Urban Health Agenda in India. He has extensive experience in working with the Government of India at the senior policy-making level, including with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and United Nations agencies.
Dr. Kumar started his discourse by highlighting India’s growth and its journey since independence, and the tremendous progress that the country has made on key health metrics such as total fertility rate, life expectancy, maternal mortality ratio and infant mortality rate, and on the remarkable reduction in communicable diseases.
Dr. Kumar emphasized that achievements in areas such as polio eradication and elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus have been monumental. “While strategic thinking makes all the difference, especially when the issues are very complicated and one has to deal with problems at scale, an inclusive and collective leadership is most crucial in steering an agenda in a mission mode. As health and wellness is a precursor to growth and development of any nation, meticulous planning and diligent implementation of health campaigns play an important role in achieving sustainable growth. Through improved planning (microplanning), objective training, intensive monitoring, active engagement of state governments, partners and smart implementation of strategies, our team was also able to focus on vulnerable and underserved population segments of India.”
Dr. Kumar said he feels that once the programs kick-off, having accurate and real-time monitoring of quality data becomes the most critical intervention to focus on. “For any such health programs to be effective and successful, data had to be collected on multiple areas, such as, level of involvement of government functionaries, quality of micro plans, training plans, missed areas and children, and the operational quality of campaigns.”
Communicating the importance of vaccination was a significant activity, and Dr. Kumar and his team had to bring in the behavioral change communication in the centre-stage, especially in the rural and urban slums of the country. “The communication has to be very simple, straight and effective with clarity of thought, to have enhanced engagement across communities and strata of the society”, he observed.
To maximize effectiveness of any program of large scale, Dr. Kumar recommended a Systems Thinking Approach: which is about seeing and understanding systems as a whole entity rather than as a collection of parts. This way of looking at things will help one recognize the web of interconnections that creates emerging patterns over time, he opines.
Citing India’s demographic dividend advantage between 2018 and 2055, Dr. Kumar said he is optimistic about India’s growth and development in the coming decades. “India needs to invest in education, health and skills of the youth of the country to make it a reality”.
About the Speaker:
Trained as a Doctor of Medicine (MD) at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Dr. Rakesh Kumar has been a member of the prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS) since 1992. He held several senior positions in India such as Secretary to the State Government; Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, and Chief Advisor of UNDP India. His seminal achievements include establishment of initial six new AIIMS in India, successfully leading the polio eradication (2014) and tetanus elimination (2015) programs, architecting the world’s largest immunization program - Mission Indradhanush (Rainbow), conceiving and implementing the electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN), introduction of six new vaccines, development of India’s Newborn Action Plan (INAP), and leading the SDGs agenda at UNDP, India.
Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Chief Advisor to Population Services International, India, addressed IIMB’s EPGP students on ‘Strategic Planning, Management & Leadership: Global Health in the Indian Context’ on July 29
02 August, 2021, Bengaluru: Dr. Rakesh Kumar, MD, a 1992 batch IAS officer of Uttarakhand cadre, addressed the students of the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP) at IIM Bangalore on ‘Strategic Planning, Management & Leadership: Global Health in the Indian Context’, as part of the EPGP Seminar Series, on July 29 (Thursday), 2021.
Dr. Kumar is currently the Chief Advisor to Population Services International, India, leading the USAID-funded Urban Health Agenda in India. He has extensive experience in working with the Government of India at the senior policy-making level, including with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and United Nations agencies.
Dr. Kumar started his discourse by highlighting India’s growth and its journey since independence, and the tremendous progress that the country has made on key health metrics such as total fertility rate, life expectancy, maternal mortality ratio and infant mortality rate, and on the remarkable reduction in communicable diseases.
Dr. Kumar emphasized that achievements in areas such as polio eradication and elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus have been monumental. “While strategic thinking makes all the difference, especially when the issues are very complicated and one has to deal with problems at scale, an inclusive and collective leadership is most crucial in steering an agenda in a mission mode. As health and wellness is a precursor to growth and development of any nation, meticulous planning and diligent implementation of health campaigns play an important role in achieving sustainable growth. Through improved planning (microplanning), objective training, intensive monitoring, active engagement of state governments, partners and smart implementation of strategies, our team was also able to focus on vulnerable and underserved population segments of India.”
Dr. Kumar said he feels that once the programs kick-off, having accurate and real-time monitoring of quality data becomes the most critical intervention to focus on. “For any such health programs to be effective and successful, data had to be collected on multiple areas, such as, level of involvement of government functionaries, quality of micro plans, training plans, missed areas and children, and the operational quality of campaigns.”
Communicating the importance of vaccination was a significant activity, and Dr. Kumar and his team had to bring in the behavioral change communication in the centre-stage, especially in the rural and urban slums of the country. “The communication has to be very simple, straight and effective with clarity of thought, to have enhanced engagement across communities and strata of the society”, he observed.
To maximize effectiveness of any program of large scale, Dr. Kumar recommended a Systems Thinking Approach: which is about seeing and understanding systems as a whole entity rather than as a collection of parts. This way of looking at things will help one recognize the web of interconnections that creates emerging patterns over time, he opines.
Citing India’s demographic dividend advantage between 2018 and 2055, Dr. Kumar said he is optimistic about India’s growth and development in the coming decades. “India needs to invest in education, health and skills of the youth of the country to make it a reality”.
About the Speaker:
Trained as a Doctor of Medicine (MD) at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Dr. Rakesh Kumar has been a member of the prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS) since 1992. He held several senior positions in India such as Secretary to the State Government; Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, and Chief Advisor of UNDP India. His seminal achievements include establishment of initial six new AIIMS in India, successfully leading the polio eradication (2014) and tetanus elimination (2015) programs, architecting the world’s largest immunization program - Mission Indradhanush (Rainbow), conceiving and implementing the electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN), introduction of six new vaccines, development of India’s Newborn Action Plan (INAP), and leading the SDGs agenda at UNDP, India.