Consultant:                                                                                                                  Paediatrician at Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai

Paediatrician, author, teacher, researcher and crusader, Dr. R. K. Anand, MD (Paediatrics), FRCP (Edinburgh), DCH (London) is the senior-most paediatrician and Head of the Department of Paediatrics and Neonatology at the Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai. An internationally recognised paediatrician, Dr. Anand was honoured with the Fellowship of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics and that of the Royal College Of Physicians, Edinburgh, for his contributions in the field of paediatric education, research and child care. As former Professor of Paediatrics at the T. N. Medical College and B. Y. L. Nair Charitable Hospital, Dr. Anand has guided several research projects and trained many young paediatricians who have distinguished themselves in India and abroad.

Dr. Anand has worked with doyens of paediatrics like Prof. L. S. N. Prasad and Prof. G. Sharan from India, Prof. R. S. Illingworth and Prof. O. P. Gray from the UK and Dr. C. Robert E. Wells and Dr. Waldo E. Nelson from the USA. He has been advisor and resource person for child care programmes of international organisations like UNICEF, Consumers International, International Baby Food Action Network, and World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, and Health Action International.

Ending the exploitation of the child consumer has been Dr. Anand’s crusade. He was a member of the Working Group set up by the Government Of India for formulation of a Code for the Marketing of Baby Foods, Chairman of the Committee for Protection of the Child Consumer of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, and founder-president of the Association for Consumers Action on Safety and Health.

Winner of the Best Speaker Award of the Speaker’s Academy, Mumbai, Dr. Anand has conducted several radio and TV programmes on child care and holistic living in English, Hindi and Punjabi. He has been contributing regularly to national and international scientific journals, and to books on child health. He is well known as an authority on breastfeeding and in the field of Social Paediatrics.

A symbol of national integration, Dr. Anand was born in the North of India (Punjab), studied in Bihar, married in the South (Kerala) and has settled in the West (Maharashtra). He and his wife Asha have three sons and three grandsons.