The Altruist: Harshad Reddy "Having completed my education in London, I always wanted to come back and work in India," says Harshad Reddy, director of Group Oncology & International at Apollo Hospitals

An altruist, this scion has made concerted efforts to battle and conquer cancer in India. Harshad Reddy has set up South Asia & the Middle East's first Proton Therapy: a state-of-the-art comprehensive cancer care treatment at Apollo Proton Cancer Centre (APCC). He is dedicated to bringing the finest treatment in India, "Having completed my education in London, I always wanted to come back and work in India," said Reddy, who is the director of Group Oncology & International at Apollo Hospitals. APCC has treated more than 1500-plus patients from 35-plus countries.

Reddy, the maternal grandson of Indian entrepreneur and cardiologist, Dr Prathap C. Reddy, has always been a patriot, enthused with the duty of serving people, a legacy inherited from his grandfather. Consequently, was finding his calling easy? "It's never an easy affair to find one's calling, at least I believe for most people. It did take me some time, but I always thought that I would come back and work with the family business and do something valuable for my country," he quipped. Reddy maintains that although the company was founded by a family member, they identify it as a professional organisation.

It was 2008, Reddy began his journey with Apollo Group focusing on small services, "I vividly remember, I was excited to revamp our ambulance services in Tamil Nadu , which was an integral part of our emergency network. Back then, we were the only large player in the private sector and were exploring PPP projects, this was my first task." Fast forward to 2014, he contributed to scaling up the home care business, "I was a part of the early team and now this segment is a decade old," he recalls, adding that the enterprise soon graduated to creating the Proton Therapy Centre, a first of its kind in South Asia & Middle East.

Being an entrepreneur is all about success that battled failure. Albert Einstein once said, "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." Reddy has a similar story as he embraced certain challenges and learnt from the mistakes he made. He believes he is incredibly fortunate to have such a platform which has the power to create a difference and touch so many lives. "It's all about capitalising on the opportunity when it comes to you. Nothing comes easy and of course luck plays an important role as well, it's about some time being in the right place."

Harshad's leadership skills are constitutional, a modest soul, he credits his humility to his father, Vijay Kumar Reddy, an industrialist. "My dad always taught me the importance of humility and my mother (Dr Preetha Reddy) has coached me about the beauty of relationships, it's all about care and how you treat people."

Reddy's social conscience transcends the boundary of healthcare; he takes active steps in mentoring the startup ecosystem, "I am committing to possibly allocate much more time engaging with early stage companies. We are in an industry where the gestation time between an idea to getting regulatory approvals and seeing revenue is a long way. Therefore, with our platform, I try to solve these two problems wherein I provide market access and I also help to compress the time that it takes to do a good job." When asked about his new endeavours, he said, "We are launching India's first women's health centre in Delhi, primarily focused on cancer."

Factsheet:

Age:38
Director- Group Oncology & International, Apollo Hospitals
The current turnover of (Apollo Proton Cancer Centre-APCC):- FY 24- 264 crore
Total employees at APCC- 400+