R. Balasubramaniam

Founder

Founder of Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement · Founder of GRAAM

R. Balasubramaniam is the founder of Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement [1] and GRAAM [2], Indian non-profits working on healthcare, education, tribal welfare, livelihood, human rights and rural & agriculture from Mysuru.

Ramaswami Balasubramaniam, generally known as Balu, is an Indian development practitioner and public policy academic. He founded the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) in 1984 and the Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM) in 2011, both based in Mysuru, Karnataka.

A physician by training, he began community work among tribal communities in H. D. Kote taluk while still a medical student, and has since combined grassroots development with teaching and public policy work in India and abroad.

Early life and education

Balasubramaniam was born in Bengaluru, Karnataka. He studied medicine at Mysore Medical College, graduating MBBS, and went on to take an MPhil in hospital administration and health systems management at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani.

In 2009 he enrolled at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University as a Mason Fellow, completing a Master in Public Administration in 2010. He was awarded a PhD in leadership and management in December 2025.

Career

Balasubramaniam founded the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement in 1984, at the age of nineteen, while still a medical student. Through SVYM he established programmes in primary and preventive healthcare, drinking water and sanitation, nutrition and education for tribal communities in H. D. Kote and Saragur in Mysuru district. As of 2016 the organisation was reported to reach more than two million people a year.

In 2011 he founded the Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM), a public policy research institute in Mysuru.

He held the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professorship at Cornell University between 2012 and 2014 and has taught leadership at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He served as a member of the Capacity Building Commission of the Government of India and chairs the Social Stock Exchange Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. In May 2026 he was appointed a full-time member of NITI Aayog.

He has written nine books in English and Kannada, among them I, the Citizen, Voices from the Grassroots and Leadership Lessons for Daily Living.

Recognition

Balasubramaniam received the State Youth Award of the Government of Karnataka in 1988, the Jayendra Saraswathi Award of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham for contributions to social work in 2003 and the India Pride Award of the Dainik Bhaskar group in 2011. In 2014 he received the Vivekananda Award for Human Excellence from the Ramakrishna Mission, the Swasthya Seva Ratna Award of the Society for Indian Medical Anthropology and the Distinguished Alumni Award of Mysuru Medical College and Research Institute; the University of Mysuru gave him its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016.

In 2021 Cornell University's Merrill Presidential Scholars named him the faculty member who had contributed most significantly to their time at Cornell. In 2024 Nrupathunga University conferred an honorary Doctor of Letters on him for his work with rural and tribal communities.

SVYM itself has received the World Health Organization's Excellence in Primary Health Care Award, the Civil Society Award of UNAIDS for HIV/AIDS prevention work, and the Resource Alliance's Best NGO in India Award in 2015.[3][4][5]

Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement

Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement runs institution- and community-based health, education and livelihood programmes for tribal, rural and urban communities in Karnataka. It reports over 1,300 tribal and rural students and 70,000 healthcare users, working from Mysuru with centres in Hassan, Bengaluru, Dharwad and Saragur.

Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement reports the following, on its own site:

70,000 people access better healthcare through SVYM's institution- and community-based programmes
12,000+ families served with free hospital and home-based palliative care
40,000+ students in 270 government schools engaged for scientific temper, academic performance and career choices
270,000 tribal and rural people reached through its Community Radio Station

GRAAM

GRAAM (Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement), founded in 2011 by Dr R. Balasubramaniam, conducts policy research, programme evaluation and community consultation across public health, education, sanitation, nutrition, livelihoods and disability, to advocate evidence-based, grassroots-informed policy change.

GRAAM reports the following, on its own site: