Guduru Venkat Rao
A Hyderabad surgeon at AIG Hospitals who has performed over 12,000 complex gut operations and pioneered scarless surgery, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2026.
Guduru Venkat Rao is a surgeon who works both with the scalpel and with the endoscope. In 2026 he was named for the Padma Shri in the field of medicine, from Telangana [1].
Career
Rao was born on 15 June 1960 and trained in surgical gastroenterology in India while the specialty was still young [2]. He is a co-founder and director of AIG Hospitals in Hyderabad, where he heads surgical gastroenterology, minimally invasive surgery and transplant services [2]. More than 150 surgeons have trained under him [2].
Surgery without scars
He has performed more than 12,000 complex gastrointestinal operations and about 16,000 advanced endoscopic procedures [2]. He was among the pioneers of NOTES, sometimes called “no scar surgery”, in which operations are done through natural openings of the body, and is credited with the world’s first appendix removal through the mouth [2]. He also led India’s islet-cell transplant programme [2].
He has worked with IISc Bengaluru on a surgical simulator and with IIT Hyderabad on a robotic nurse for rural hospitals [2].
Beyond the hospital
Through the Asian Healthcare Foundation, his screening camps and telemedicine work have reached more than a lakh people in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh [2]. He has been president of the Indian Association of Surgical Gastroenterology and of the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association [2].
He received the Dr. B. C. Roy National Award [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2026: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2026 investiture ceremony brochure: citation for Guduru Venkat Rao — Press Information Bureau, Government of India. Accessed 12 October 2026.
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