Honorable Dr Harsh Vardhan

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Minister of Science and Technology
Government of India

Honorable Dr. Harsh vardhanji is the current Union Minister for Science & Technology in the Government of India. Dr. Vardhan’s contributions as Health Minister as well as his efforts to eradicate Polio via mass immunization of more than one million children were a huge success. This program was  adopted by the Government of India and exercised throughout the nation. Former Prime Minister AtalBehari Vajpayee described him as SwasthyaVardhan.The Delhi Prohibition of Smoking Act and the Non-Smokers Health Protection Act were passed in 1997 under his leadership. This ultimately culminated into a Central Legislation in 2002 to ban smoking in public places.

Dr Harshvardhan pioneered the initiation and implementation of Essential Drug Programme of WHO. He established India’s first Department for Occupational and Environmental Health in Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi. His leadership also saw the beginning of the Shravan Shakti Abhiyan, Cataract Free Delhi Programme, and the Cancer Control Programme. He was the Advisor of South-East Asia office of the World Health Organization and has also served the Global Technical Consultative Group and the highest body of the WHO dedicated to polio eradication, the Technical Consultative Group of South East Asia. The launch of the Hepatitis B Immunization Programme, the Delhi Research Centre for Modernised Promotion of Ayurveda, and the Healthy City Project were undertaken by his ministry.

Dr Harshavardhan did his MBBS and thereafter MS in ENT from GSVM Medical College in Kanpur       and returned to Delhi to practice as an ENT surgeon..

Dr Harshavardhan has received several accolades for his medical acheievements and community impact projects. Noteworthy are ‘IMA President’s Special Award of Appreciation’, the Lions International Service Award in 1995 from C. PinoGrimaldi, the then President of the Lions International, Paul Harris Fellowshipby Rotary International , ‘Sewa Shree Samman’.In January 2001, on behalf of the Rotary International, the then Prime Minister AtalBehari Vajpayee honored him with the Polio Eradication Champion Award.He wrote a book on how he conceived and implemented the polio eradication programme in December 2004. The title of the book is A Tale of Two Drops (in    English) and Kahani Do Boondo Ki (in Hindi).