Soumya Swaminathan, director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), will be the deputy director-general, World Health Organization (WHO), in Geneva.
This is the second-highest position at the UN’s health agency.
Currently, she also holds the post of secretary of the department of health research in India.
The new WHO leadership team was announced by the director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was elected to the post in May 2017.
The team represents 14 countries, including all WHO regions, and is more than 60% women.
Every WHO member state gets a chance to nominate a candidate for the deputy’s post and it was India’s turn this year. Dr Swaminathan was India’s nominee.
Dr Swaminathan will replace Dr Anarfi Asamoa-Baah from Ghana, who joined WHO as a senior policy adviser to the director-general and had served as the assistant director-general of the communicable disease programme and the HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria programme.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan: Know More- Dr. Swaminathan, 58, is a paediatrician and clinical scientist. She is known for her work on tuberculosis.
- She did her MBBS and MD from the Armed Forces Medical College and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), respectively.
- She is one of the three daughters of Dr MS Swaminathan, who is known as the father of green revolution in India.
- Her mother, Mina, is an educationist, and as chairperson of the study group on the development of pre-school children, had submitted a report that formed the basis of the Integrated Child Development Services.
