ARAVIND - Key Persons

Dey Sarkar A

Dey Sarkar A, Sarkar S, Dey Sarkar A, Thakur SKD. Post-pandemic boom: A surprise for ophthalmologists. Kerala Journal of Ophthalmology. 2024;36(1):48-52. | DOI: 10.4103/kjo.kjo_118_22.

Dhivya Ramasamy

Job Titles:

Executive Director - LAICO

Dr. Avik Dey Sarkar graduated in Medicine from Nilratan Sircar Medical College & Hospital in the year 2016 and further pursued Masters in Ophthalmology from Midnapore Medical College & Hospital. He completed his M.S. (Ophthalmology) degree in 2020 and stood 9 th in the university (W.B.U.H.S.). Further he joined as a Senior Resident in the same institution and continued till November'2021. In 2022, he joined Department of Vitreoretinal Surgeries, Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai as Long-term Surgical fellow and completed successfully in February'2024. He also received the degree FAICO (Vitreoretinal Surgery) in the year 2023 under AIOS collegium.

Dr. B. Manohar Babu

Job Titles:

Chief Medical Officer
CMO - Aravind Eye Hospital, Salem
Medical Consultant

Dr. Dipankar Datta

Job Titles:

CMO - Aravind Eye Hospital, Theni

Dr. E. Keerthana

Job Titles:

Medical Consultant

Dr. Eliza Anthony

Dr. Eliza Anthony completed her M.B.B.S from St.John's Medical Institute of Health Sciences, Bangaluru and DNB ophthalmology from Giridhar Eye Institute, Cochin, Kerala. She has also obtained "Cataract and Community Ophthalmology Fellowship" and "Medical Retina and Uvea Fellowship " from Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Dr. G. Natchiar

Job Titles:

Director - Emeritus

Dr. G. Venkataswamy

Dr. Venkataswamy was the recipient of many awards, among them: the Padmashree Award from the Government of India, the Helen Keller International Award, and the first International Blindness Prevention Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He was a Founder and Advisor to the Seva Foundation. His vision lives on through the daily works of literally hundreds of eye hospitals around the world which he influenced through training, encouragement, and friendship.

Dr. G. Venkataswamy Eye

Job Titles:

Research Institute

Dr. Ganesh V Raman

Job Titles:

Chief

Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy

G. Venkataswamy popularly known as ‘Dr V.' was the founder and former chairman of Aravind Eye Hospitals. He was born on October 1, 1918 in Vadamalapuram, a village eighty kilometres from Madurai in Tamil Nadu, India. He received his medical degree from Stanley Medical College, Chennai in 1944. Thereafter, he joined the Indian Army Medical Corps but had to retire in 1948 after developing rheumatoid arthritis. The condition became so severe that he was bedridden for over a year. For a time, he struggled even to walk and could not hold a pen in his badly crippled fingers. Despite his condition, he returned to medical school and earned his diploma and master's degree in Ophthalmology. Through his hard work and determination, Dr. V learned how to hold a scalpel and perform cataract surgery. Eventually, he was able to perform more than one hundred surgeries a day and over one hundred thousand successful eye surgeries during his lifetime. While in the government service, Dr. V introduced a number of innovative programmes to deal with the problem of blindness in India. To name a few, outreach camps in eye care (1960), a rehabilitation centre for the blind (1966), and the creation of an ophthalmic assistants training programme in 1973. In recognition of his work in the fight against blindness, Dr, V received the Padmashree award in 1973 by the Government of India. Upon his retirement from government service, Dr. V founded Aravind Eye Hospital as an 11-bed facility in 1976. He passed away on July 7, 2006. Dr. G. Venkataswamy was born in 1918 in Vadamalapuram, a small village in southern India as the eldest of five siblings. His father, Govindappa Naicker and mother, Lakshmi were well-respected individuals in the village. They were hard-working, simple and deeply principled. When he was around five, he witnessed the deaths of several of his cousins - young women who lost their lives to complications in pregnancy. There were no doctors in the village. The futility of these early tragedies disturbed the young boy so much that he began to dream about becoming a doctor to make a difference.