Arogya World Fellow Mallika Rao interviewed Rajat Gupta.
Rajat Gupta knows a thing or two about business development. With several top positions under his belt, Gupta became an independent consultant in 2009, and now works with Arogya World to develop and execute fundraising strategies. He talked about his experience with Arogya and his personal connection to the organization’s mission.
Tell me about your role in Arogya World and how you got involved.
My role primarily is to scale up the existing programs and generate fundraising strategies for programs. I organize the Healthy Workplaces conference, which is held in November. I’m currently working on the MyThali program. Our goal ultimately is to see how many people we can reach with each program, and what kind of funds we can generate.
How has your experience shaped your understanding of NCDs?
I have a lot of personal experience with this cause. At 37, I was diagnosed with diabetes. It runs in my father’s side of the family. On top of genetics, I was also leading a rather wild lifestyle. The doctors in my family said to me that if I want to live longer, I have to lead a healthy and active lifestyle. Because of the knowledge I have now, I have lost almost 51 pounds.
When it comes to diseases like this, prevention is better than a cure. People ignore symptoms of these diseases and taking care of their health, only to get a diagnosis like this.
How has Arogya World changed the conversation on NCD prevention?
Arogya [World]’s model is rather unique from other organizations that are getting people around the world to talk about health and wellness. Arogya talks in plain and simple terms: if you take care of your health, you create wonders. It reaches workplaces and schools, which is unprecedented. The science we break down is not rocket science, and the language we use engages people to come out and support our work.