core team

Dr. Altaf Lal

Acting Project Director

Dr. Lal is Senior Advisor for Global Health and Innovation, Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Limited, India. He serves on the board of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership Board (RBM), Asia Pacific Leader’s Malaria

Dr. Lal is Senior Advisor for Global Health and Innovation, Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Limited, India. He serves on the board of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership Board (RBM), Asia Pacific Leader’s Malaria Alliance (APLMA), and Foundation for Disease Elimination and Control of India (FDEC-India). He also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Sun Pharma Healthcare Society. He is also the Acting Director of the Malaria Elimination Demonstration Project. He has served as the Director of US FDA India Office; Technical Director, Decade of Vaccines Collaboration; Chief Executive Officer, Hilleman Laboratories; U.S. Health Attaché and Regional Representative for South Asia at the U.S. Embassy in India, and Chief Malaria Vaccine Section at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA. He has over three decades of experience in infectious disease research, vaccines and immunization, biotechnology, global health, product safety, and policy matters. Dr. Lal has worked towards building bilateral and multilateral partnerships, which has led to significant growth and collaborations at academic, institutional, industry and government levels. He is recipient of the Life Time Achievement award and Gugnani Oration Medal from the Indian Society of Malaria and other Communicable Disease and India Association of Epidemiologists, Public Health Ambassador Award from the National Centers for Disease Control, and HIV/AIDS Ambassador Award from the Central University of Hyderabad, FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation Award, Unit Citation Award, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, National Oceanic Service, James H. Nakano Citation, National Center for Infectious Disease (NICD), CDC & Outstanding Scientific Contribution to Public Health Award. In his illustrious career, Dr. Lal has published over 220 papers.

Dr. Harsh Rajvanshi

Program Officer

Dr. Rajvanshi is a trained clinician with a Masters in Public Health specializing in epidemiology (top of the class) from the Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal University. He is currently serving as Head

Dr. Rajvanshi is a trained clinician with a Masters in Public Health specializing in epidemiology (top of the class) from the Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal University. He is currently serving as Head of Operations, Chief Epidemiologist and M&E Officer for the project. Based at Mandla, he is responsible for all operational and technical activities of the project along with supervision of all epidemiologic and data collection aspects of MEDP. He coordinates with the State of Madhya Pradesh, Indian Council for Medical Research – National Institute for Research in Tribal Health and National Institute of Epidemiology on behalf of FDEC-India. He is also responsible for briefings to the District Collector, Chief Medical and Health Officer, District Malaria Officer, DG ICMR, and Director NVBDCP. Dr. Rajvanshi has authored more than 15 papers in peer reviewed journals and is also the Co-Founder and Editorial Chief of International Dental Journal of Students' Research and Journal of Public Health & Allied Sciences. He has presented more than 50 research papers and ideas in conferences and events.He is also the recipient of the prestigious Pierre Fauchard Senior Student award, Famdent Outstanding Student of the Year award, Best Outgoing Student award (from his alma mater), Top 14 Student Clinicians of India by ADA/Dentsply amongst several others.

Sekh Nisar

District Officer

Mr. Nisar comes with more than 12 years of public health experience, of which nine years have been in the field of malaria program implementation. He has worked extensively in the highest endemic regions of Madh

Mr. Nisar comes with more than 12 years of public health experience, of which nine years have been in the field of malaria program implementation. He has worked extensively in the highest endemic regions of Madhya Pradesh and has a deep understanding of government health programs. At MEDP, he is the head of field operations with a staff of 25 Malaria Field Coordinators directly reporting to him. He leads selection, training, supervision and implementation of the operational plan at ground-level. He works with the state to help them in monitoring and implementation of vector control measures such as Indoor Residual Spray (IRS) and Long Lasting Insecticidal Treated Bed Nets (LLINs). He also has deep understanding of field staff dynamics, challenges faced in ground level implementation of public health programs and training/assessment of ground level health staff. He was also the principal investigator for all malarial-related deaths in the Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh.

Rahul Jain

Administration Officer

Mr. Jain is a post graduate in Social Work (MSW) from Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal University, Manipal. He is currently working with the Foundation for Disease Elimination and Control of India as an

Mr. Jain is a post graduate in Social Work (MSW) from Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal University, Manipal. He is currently working with the Foundation for Disease Elimination and Control of India as an Officer-Administration for Malaria Elimination Demonstration Project. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce. He has two years of hands-on experience as an Accounting Manager with a strong record of noteworthy attainments in increasingly more responsible management position during his short career in ICAP Enterprise, which is a 3 star certified tally partner.

Amit Sahu

Accounts and Supply Chain Officer

Mr. Sahu holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce. He has 7 years of experience in various fields like Customer service, Collection, Finance & Accounts, Accounts Payable, Back office operation and office administ

Mr. Sahu holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce. He has 7 years of experience in various fields like Customer service, Collection, Finance & Accounts, Accounts Payable, Back office operation and office administration. He oversees the entire financial accounting, budgeting and supply chain management of drugs, diagnostics and logistics in the project. He is a LEAN certified professional along with proficiency in AS 400, Oracle, SAP, Gencollect, Storeman, CM Pro and HR Pro. He has been awarded with several excellence awards in performance, handling major accounting transitions, process developing etc. during his tenures at NCML (National Collateral Management Services Ltd.) and Genpact.

Vinay Telasey

IT Officer

Mr. Telasey has Bachelors in Information Technology and he is also an Oracle Certified Professional Java SE6 Programmer. He has experience in handling epidemiological big data sets and has worked at Indian Counc

Mr. Telasey has Bachelors in Information Technology and he is also an Oracle Certified Professional Java SE6 Programmer. He has experience in handling epidemiological big data sets and has worked at Indian Council for Medical Research – National Institute for Research in Tribal Health (ICMR NIRTH). He is working as the IT officer and supervises the data entry for the project. He is also the primary support for mobile application surveillance tool – SOlutions for Community Healthworkers (SOCH) and is the project’s go-to-guy for a wide range of IT related issues. He is also proficient in SPSS, STATA, Photoshop, CorelDraw, CS Pro and database management.