The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) hosted a seminar titled “Strengthening Medical Education in India” on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.

The seminar featured presentations by Amrita Agarwal, Visiting Fellow, CSEP; Rakesh Waghmare, Registrar, Maharashtra Medical Council & Officer on Special Duty, Department of Medical Education, Government of Maharashtra, and Aarushi Bhatnagar, Senior Economist, Health, The World Bank. The presentations were followed by a Private Sector Perspective from Umesh Gupta, Senior Director – HR and Chief People Officer, Max Healthcare and Sonalini Khetrapal, Team Lead – Health, Human And Social Development Sector Office, Asian Development Bank. The session was chaired by Vinod Paul, Member, NITI Aayog and moderated by Neethi V. Rao, Fellow, CSEP. Sandhya Venkateswaran gave the Welcome Address.

About the event 

India is undergoing a critical transition in its healthcare landscape, characterised by rising expectations from the health system, changing disease profiles, and the imperative to build a resilient and responsive health workforce. At the centre of this transformation lies the urgent need to strengthen the medical education system—not just in terms of expanding capacity, but in improving quality, equity, and alignment with public health goals.

While significant progress has been made in increasing access, it also underscores the need to ensure that expansion is matched by improvements in educational quality, equitable distribution of training institutions, and alignment with population health needs.

States play a critical role in shaping these outcomes. Several state governments, often with support from development partners, have launched innovative programs. Yet, institutional challenges persist, including shortages of qualified faculty, variation in infrastructure and training standards, and limited integration with primary and preventive care systems.

Equally important is the need to facilitate meaningful public-private collaboration in shaping the direction of medical education through shared standards, public interest safeguards, and accountability mechanisms.

The seminar, hosted by CSEP, provided a timely platform to explore these challenges and opportunities. By bringing together policymakers, researchers, private sector leaders, and development partners, the discussion generated insights, surface practical solutions, and contributed to a shared roadmap for strengthening India’s medical education ecosystem in line with its broader health and development priorities.

Chair

Vinod Paul

Vinod Paul served on the faculty of the Department of Paediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, from 1985 to 2020, and was Head of the Department for nearly a decade. He is a globally recognised medical scientist and public health exponent.

The Government of India appointed Dr Paul as a Member of the NITI Aayog in August 2017, where he leads the Health, Nutrition and Education verticals. He has played a pivotal role in formulating the Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY, the Ayushman Arogya Mandir scheme, and POSHAN Abhiyaan.

Dr Paul also served as the Chairman of the Board of Governors in supersession of the Medical Council of India in 2018-20. This tenure was recognised for a record increase in undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats and the introduction of telemedicine guidelines, district residency scheme and a plethora of other reforms.

Dr Paul has been a part of the core team of the Union Government for the COVID-19 pandemic response. He chaired the National Task Force on COVID-19, the Empowered Group on Emergency Management Plan and Strategy, Empowered Group on Vaccination as well as the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC).

Welcome Address

Sandhya Venkateswaran

Sandhya Venkateswaran is a Senior Fellow at CSEP and leads the Human Development work at CSEP, with a specific focus on Health Policy.  Spanning a career over three decades, she has worked on a wide range of issues in the social sector spanning health, nutrition, gender, natural resources, urban development and others, and has authored books, multiple articles and other publications on varied social sector issues.  Over the last 15 years her focus has been on policy issues, developing and leading the policy and advocacy portfolio in organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition and CARE. She has worked with grassroots campaigns and civil society organisations, as well as with government and international organisations. She is currently a member of the Lancet Citizens Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System.

Presenters

Amrita Agarwal

Amrita Agarwal has had a diverse experience across the private sector and policy space. She was with Bain India working across health, tech services, financial services, infrastructure and private equity. Post Bain, Amrita led the health system design at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, helping establish and scale up a portfolio of investments on structural reforms in the healthcare sector of India working closely with national, state governments, international institutions and the private sector. Currently, she is working in a diversified Indian conglomerate. She is a Visiting Fellow at CSEP.

Rakesh Waghmare

Rakesh Waghmare is a Senior Medical Doctor with over 12 years of UG and PG teaching experience and 7 years as an administrator in the Government of Maharashtra with wide-ranging experience on various aspects of medical education. He is currently Registrar of the Maharashtra Medical Council and Officer on Special Duty at the Medical Education Department of the Government of Maharashtra

Aarushi Bhatnagar

Aarushi Bhatnagar is a Senior Economist with the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice at The World Bank currently based in New Delhi. Since joining The World Bank in 2018, she has worked extensively on health service delivery and quality of care with a particular focus on the health workforce. Aarushi has previously worked with Oxford Policy Management Ltd, Johns Hopkins University, and Public Health Foundation of India on health systems strengthening in several low- and middle-income countries. Aarushi completed her PhD in health systems from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and holds degrees in Economics from the University of Cambridge and Delhi University.

Public Sector Perspective

Umesh Gupta

Umesh Gupta is a thought leader and seasoned human resource professional with over two decades of dynamic experience. In his current role at Max Healthcare, he is responsible for envisioning the roadmap for HR, designing and implementing people strategies and fostering an inclusive and diverse workforce, aligned with the overall organizational vision.

Sonalini Khetarpal

Sonalini Khetarpal is an experienced health specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the development sector for close to 20 years. She has designed and implemented lending support of over $4 billion dollars to the countries of the South Asia Region.

She holds a Ph.D. in Health Economics & Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London. A graduate in engineering and economics from Cornell University, she received her Masters in Public Health from Columbia University.

Sonalini has authored several research articles published across various international peer reviewed journals.

Moderator

Neethi V. Rao

Neethi V. Rao is a Fellow in Health and Human Development vertical at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress.  She is a health policy and systems researcher with interests in health systems governance and intersectoral public policy at the intersections of environment and health. Her research and practice have volved providing technical support in strategic planning, policy design, implementation, and evaluation including impact assessments for governments and international development agencies. She also develops and delivers online and in-person training programs on participatory governance, good health research practice, and promoting evidence-informed policy. She worked with the health systems governance team at the World Health Organization, supporting research and advocacy towards a World Health Assembly Resolution proposal on social participation for 2024. She is also Adjunct Faculty at the Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru.

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.

Please contact Gurmeet Kaur at GKaur@csep.org for general queries and Ayesha Manocha at AManocha@csep.org for media queries.