Our Mission
To provide clean, timely and research-ready maternal & newborn data to health departments and researchers — so decisions are evidence-led and interventions reach the families who need them most.
Sankalp is a data-driven initiative to improve maternal, newborn and child health outcomes by unifying facility data, enabling research-ready datasets and powering insights for policy and practice.
To provide clean, timely and research-ready maternal & newborn data to health departments and researchers — so decisions are evidence-led and interventions reach the families who need them most.
Secretary, Department of Health Research & Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
Dr Rajiv Bahl is a physician-scientist, with specialization in paediatrics (MD Pediatrics: University of Delhi) and public health (PhD: All India Institute of Medical Sciences). He received an Honorary Doctorate from University of Bergen, Norway, in 2022 in recognition of his contributions to maternal and child health research.
Dr Bahl has demonstrated leadership in health research and translating research to public health policy both in India and at a global level over the past three decades. His prolific scholarly output includes over 250 papers in peer reviewed journals and an H-Index of 78 that positions him among top 1.25% scientists in the world across all disciplines.
Dr Bahl has been serving as the Secretary, Department of Health Research & Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) since 7th October, 2022. Prior to this, he headed research on Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health at the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva (2013-22) and led newborn and child health research at WHO (2003-2012).
His expertise includes setting the research agenda, conceptualizing and implementing research studies, data analysis and translating research findings into public health policy and programmes. He has overseen population-based multi-country research in 20+ countries and helped strengthen research capacity in 50+ institutions.
Research coordinated by Dr Bahl has influenced policy and programs with potential to save over 1,000,000 lives every year. Notable contributions include promotion of zinc for diarrhea, early/exclusive breastfeeding, outpatient management of neonatal infections, and early Kangaroo Mother Care in intensive settings.
Email: secy-dg[at]icmr[dot]org[dot]in
People building and operating Sankalp — data scientists, engineers and public health experts.
Divison Delivery / Implementation and Research
Informatics / Data Centre
For collaboration, data access or technical queries contact the Sankalp team.
Email: Yet to be updated