Rajendra Prasad
A Lucknow chest physician who set up the first DOTS TB centre in an Indian medical college, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2026.
Rajendra Prasad has spent fifty years treating and teaching about lung disease, especially tuberculosis. In 2026 he was named for the Padma Shri in the field of medicine, from Uttar Pradesh [1].
Career
Prasad was born on 17 February 1950 in a village in Basti district and studied medicine at K. G. Medical College, Lucknow [2]. He has headed pulmonary medicine at King George’s Medical University, directed the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute in Delhi and the Rural Institute of Medical Sciences at Saifai, and is now director of medical education at Era’s Lucknow Medical College [2].
Fighting TB
He has campaigned against TB since 1976 [2]. He helped set up the first DOTS centre in a medical college in India, at K. G. Medical College, a model later used in about 700 medical colleges [2]. At KGMU he turned the tuberculosis department into a full pulmonary medicine department, adding services such as bronchoscopy and Uttar Pradesh’s first sleep lab [2].
Bidi smoke and kitchen smoke
According to his citation, he was the first in India to link bidi smoking and smoke from biomass cooking fuel with chronic obstructive lung disease, TB and lung cancer [2]. He has published 325 papers and 12 books and supervised 185 postgraduate theses [2]. He has led India’s main lung-medicine societies, including the Tuberculosis Association of India [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 Rajendra Prasad — Press Information Bureau, Government of India. Accessed 12 October 2026.
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