R.V. Ramani

Ramani was born in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, to Dr A. Ramanathan, one of the city's early physicians, and Lakshmi Ramanathan. He attended the Municipal Boys High School in Coimbatore and took his medical degree at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, where he was named best outgoing student. He married Dr Radha in 1971.

In 1972 Ramani restarted his father's practice in Coimbatore as the Dr Ramanathan Memorial Clinic, working alongside his wife. Between 1977 and 1985 he opened medical centres offering voluntary healthcare services.

In 1981 he established the Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Medical Trust, a registered public charitable trust, and in 1985 launched what became known as the Sankara movement, concentrating on community eye care. The trust built a network of specialist eye hospitals offering free surgery to the poor.

By May 2023 Sankara had screened more than 13 million patients and performed close to three million eye operations, with around 2.4 million free surgeries. Its outreach work includes the Gift of Vision community screening programme and the Rainbow programme for schoolchildren.

In 2019 the Government of India conferred the Padma Shri, its fourth highest civilian honour, on Ramani. He received the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness Regional Achievement Award and the Mahaveer Award in 2016.

Earlier honours include the Outstanding Young Person Award (1982) and Young Doctor Award (1985) of Jaycees International, the Lions International Meritorious Service Award (1986), a lifetime achievement award from the Kasturba Medical College alumni association (1996), the Role Model of India Award and Vaidyarathna Award (2000), the Dr K. S. Sanjivi Award (2007) and the Heroes of Humanity Award of the Art of Living Foundation (2010).[2][3][4]