Governing Body & Advisors for DIA

Governing Body

The Governing Body of Dementia India Alliance brings together experienced professionals, and family caregivers from across India who share a common commitment to improving the lives of persons living with dementia and their families. Collectively, the Governing Body represents decades of experience in dementia care, clinical practice, caregiver support, research, training, advocacy, and community engagement, across different regions of the country.

United by a shared vision, we have created a collaborative network where knowledge, experience, and best practices are openly shared. Many of us have walked the journey of dementia personally or professionally, and together we are committed to ensuring that future families, caregivers, and communities have access to the support, information, and dignity that every person deserves.

Dr Radha S Murthy

President

With a brilliant academic career and over thirty years of medical experience, Dr Radha Murthy has established herself as an eminent doctor who believes in humane and personalized care. She spends time with patients; showing concern, listening to them and sharing their emotions and burdens.

Dr Radha is also Co-Founder and Managing Trustee - Nightingales Medical Trust.

Shyam Viswanathan

Vice-President

An Electrical Engineer and an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies of Delhi University. He has 4 decades of experience in configuring and delivering solutions to large corporations in areas as diverse as Process Design, Knowledge Management and Technology Based Training. He is a Consultant and Faculty in areas such as Personal Effectiveness; Leadership of Teams; Leadership of Change & new Initiatives and Innovation & Design Thinking. He has also been a Subject Matter Expert with SHRM and an empaneled Faculty with Harvard Business School Publishing. He was the first Associate Dean of Executive Education at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. He has led the design and delivery of Leadership Development initiatives for more than 120 different organizations worldwide.

Mr Shyam was a family carer for his father.

Dr NS Raju

Vice-President

With a brilliant academic career and over thirty years of medical experience in geriatric and palliative care, Dr N.S. Raju has established himself as an eminent doctor who believes in humane and personalized care. His work focuses on palliative care through his elder care foundation.

Medical doctor and Managing Trustee at Sneha Sandhya Age Care Foundation, Visakhapatnam Andhra Pradesh.

Dr Sridhar Vaitheswaran

Secretary

Dr Sridhar Vaitheswaran, MD, MRCPsych is the assistant Director & Consultant Psychiatrist, Dementia Care in SCARF (DEMCARES), Schizophrenia Research Foundation (India) – SCARF, Chennai, India. He is a clinician interested in applied research in dementia and geriatric mental health in low- and middle-income countries. He runs a clinic and an in-patient facility for the elderly with mental illness, including dementia, in SCARF Hospital, Chennai.

Dr Sridhar Vaitheswaran, MD, MRCPsych served as assistant Director & Consultant Psychiatrist, Dementia Care in SCARF (DEMCARES)

Pavithra Gangadharan

Joint Secretary

Pavithra Gangadharan is healthcare entrepreneur specializing in geriatric and dementia care. With a M.Sc. in Psychological Sciences from Brunel University and an ISB business background, she blends clinical empathy with strategic management. She designs specialized residential and respite care models for seniors with Alzheimer's and cognitive decline.

Founder of Hyderabad's Kshetra Assisted Living, She also provides executive governance as a corporate director for Heritage ElderCare Services and Kshetra Care Solutions.

Wg Cdr DP Sabharwal

Treasurer

An engineer by training, Air force officer by profession, teacher and trainer by aptitude, writer by passion and social worker by choice. Since 2017, he has been involved in spreading awareness about dementia, and has written two books on the subject. He is Founder Chairperson of ADRAG-India (Alzheimer Dementia Rotary Action Group).

He looked after his wife suffering from Alzheimer’s for twelve years

S Premkumar Raja

Member

With two Masters Degrees in Social Sciences and over 30 years of experience as a Community Welfare and Healthcare Administrator, Mr Raja has planned and successfully implemented several innovative social and healthcare projects in various parts of India.

Co-Founder and Secretary of Nightingales Medical Trust.

Senju Joseph

Member

Has worked and managed Dementia care centers in the UK for more than 10 years. He is a RN who completed ATHE level 6 in Health & Social Care Management and National Vocational Qualification Level 3 and 4 in Health & Social Care from the UK. Impassioned about working with Dementia and devoted to revolutionize the Dementia care strategy in India.

Founder and Director of Best Dementia Care Home

Rajit Mehta

Member

Rajit Mehta is the MD & CEO of Antara Senior Living Ltd. and the Ex-Managing Director of Max Healthcare and Max India. He is also the Chairman of CII task force for Seniors, Co-chair NatHealth senior care vertical, board member of ASLI (Association of Senior Living organizations in India) and a Director on the Boards of Sheares Healthcare India Holdings (a Temasek company) and Medica Synergie Pvt. Ltd. (a hospital chain in East India).

Rajit Mehta is a carer for his mother.

Renu Sachdeva

Member

A Counselling Psychologist and certified Life Skills Trainer in a range of modalities including Transactional Analysis, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Metaphor Therapy and Hypnotherapy (L3). In 2013, Renu left the corporate world to launch her own firm called Prism Counselling to offer a range of mental health & wellness services and interventions for individuals and institutions. Prior to that, in her corporate stint of over 25 years, she worked in the areas of media strategy, advertising and marketing research in UK, Singapore and India.

Renu Sachdeva is a carer for her mother and mother-in-law

Ashok Balasubramanian

Member

Mechanical Engineer and Management graduate. He has over four decades of corporate experience in the oil and gas sector. He retired as Chairman of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. in 2017 and was later the CEO of a mega project in Maharashtra. Mr. Ashok has introduced and led a lot of transformative initiatives in the oil industry including the significant PM Ujjwala Yojana, of providing LPG access to BPL families leading to social transformation and earning global appreciation. Highly respected and consulted on matters of policy, he is also an acclaimed speaker in several international and national fora. He is a recipient of the Scope Award for Leadership from the Hon’ble President of India and also Business Today Best CEO in 2017.

Ashok B is a carer for his mother.

Vijayalakshmi Viswanathan

Member

Vijayalakshmi Viswanathan brings close to four decades of experience spanning business and Executive Capability Development. She serves as an Executive Coach to senior leaders across large organizations in sectors such as e-commerce, Information Technology, mobile networks, automobiles, power, steel, and banking. She conducts leadership development programs in areas such as Leading Self, Leading Others, and Influencing Skills. She trains and certifies Learning & Development professionals and technical subject matter experts in designing and delivering impactful training programs, using a combination of workshops, hands-on projects, feedback, and peer learning.

She was a carer for her father-in-law who lived with Dementia.

Dr Srikala Bharath

Member

Dr. Srikala Bharath is a renowned Adult & Old Age Psychiatrist with 40 years of clinical experience in Psychiatry. She completed MBBS from Madras University, DPM & MD from NIMHANS, Bengaluru, DCAP from the University of London, FRCPsych in UK and RANCP in Australia & New Zealand. After completing DPM, MD and Senior Residency at the Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bangalore she joined as a faculty in 1993 and consultant and took voluntary retirement in May 2016. She worked as a Consultant Psychiatrist in UK (2004) and Australia (2016 onwards). She was adjunct faculty at the Rural University of Monash, Mildura (2017 – 2018) and Deakin University, Geelong (2021/2022), Australia while working in permanent positions. She currently works as consultant in the area of Adult and Old Age Psychiatry.

Dr Srikala co-founded the Geriatric Psychiatry ward in NIMHANS

Dr Alexander Thomas

Member

Founder and Patron of AHPI, ANBAI, and CAHO. He played a significant part in incorporating healthcare communication among the NABH Accreditation Standards for Hospitals (4th Edition), introducing communication skills within the MBBS and PG curricula for medical students across India, rolling back the service tax for the health sector and making assaults on doctors a non-bailable offence. He led the expert group on medical education for the NEP. He initiated the creation of a national Think Tank on Health at the NLSIU. He is a member of the Health Insurance Consultative Committee constituted by the IRDAI, GOI and member of the joint working group of the NHA and IRDAI for health claim exchanges by the MOHFW.Dr. Thomas played an important role in developing the Karnataka State Public Health Policy as the Member-Secretary of its Task Force. He is currently the Chair of the SDG 3 (Health) Sub-Committee of the GOI (incidentally the only non-IAS officer to head such a committee). Dr. Thomas’ contributions to the medical profession were recognized by the IMA, who conferred upon him the IMA Dr. M. G. Garg All-Time Achievement Award for Outstanding and Distinguished Services, Dr. Thomas was awarded the Waterfalls Global Award (2022) by the Government of the United Arab Emirates, one of only 15 global winners.

Yogesh Andlay

Member

Yogesh Andlay is a founding team member of several leading well-known companies in the IT, consultancy, and education fields. He is the Co-founder of Nucleus Software, Grows Talent Co Ltd., and School of Inspired Leadership. Yogesh, the alumnus of the IITD 1979 batch, was President of the IIT Delhi Alumni Association during the year 2006-07. He has also been an active participant in PanIIT Alumni activities. Yogesh serves on the board of SOIL – School of Inspired Leadership. Yogesh has been an advisor to the Millennium Alliance program of FICCI. In addition, he served as a Co-Chair of the Startup Committee of FICCI and a member of the Science and Technology Board of FICCI. Yogesh serves on the board of WHEELS Global Foundation. He is a member of the team working on the Pilot Project for Integrated Water Management based on Scientific Data and Evidence for Himachal Pradesh. Yogesh is a certified Executive Coach. Yogesh is the Director in the WGF Board, India and looks after Water initiatives.

Patrons

Dr Soumya Swaminathan

Former WHO’s Chief Scientist and before that, Deputy Director-General for Programmes Chairperson, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation

Dr P Satish Chandra

Ex-Director & Vice Chancellor of NIMHANSSenior Consultant - Apollo Hospitals

Dr KR Gangadharan

Founder - Heritage Medical Centre

Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha PVSM, AVSM, VM (Veteran)

Former Chief of Air Staff

Dr V Mohan

Founder Chairman & Chief of Diabetology, Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialties Centre

Governing Body

Dr Radha S Murthy

President

Shyam Viswanathan

Vice-President

Dr NS Raju

Vice-President

Dr Sridhar Vaitheswaran

Secretary

Pavithra Gangadharan

Joint Secretary

Wg Cdr DP Sabharwal

Treasurer

S Premkumar Raja

Member

Senju Joseph

Member

Rajit Mehta

Member

Renu Sachdeva

Member

Ashok Balasubramanian

Member

Vijayalakshmi Viswanathan

Member

Dr Srikala Bharath

Member

Dr Alexander Thomas

Member

Yogesh Andlay

Member

Global Ambassador

Prof Ralph Martins

Chair in Aging & Alzheimers Disease Edith Cowan University, Australia

Advisory Board

Dr ES Krishnamoorthy

Dr Sanjeev Jain

Ms Neha Sinha

Dr Neela Patel

Dr K Venkateswarlu

Dr Y Muralidhar Reddy

Dr Roop Gursahani

Mr Harit Nagpal

Mr RR Nair

Mr Kewal K Nohria

Mr Sanjeev Bhargava

Mr Sudhakar Rao

Mr Ramesh Swamy

Mr Manoj Chandran

Dr Karthik Narayan R

Mr Ishaan Khanna

Former WHO’s Chief Scientist and before that, Deputy Director-General for Programmes

Chairperson, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation

Ex-Director & Vice Chancellor of NIMHANS

Senior Consultant - Apollo Hospitals

Founder Chairman & Chief of Diabetology,
Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialties Centre

Chair in Aging & Alzheimers Disease
Edith Cowan University, Australia