Sandeep Ahuja served for many years as Additional Commissioner in the Government of India. He proceeded on sabbatical leave to join University of Chicago and earned Master of Public Policy with specialization in Health Administration & Policy. He was awarded Harris Fellowship and a World Bank Scholarship. He was selected as a McCormick Tribune Community Leadership Fellow during his stay in Chicago. His interview with Chicago Public Radio on Woldview in 2007 was the year’s top program. Sandeep has also taught a mini course on Global Health Problems at the University of Chicago.

In 2005, after over 8 years of experience of providing health care in urban slum communities, he co-founded Operation ASHA in Delhi, India, with the mission of eradicating tuberculosis. As CEO, Sandeep has led the organization since 2006. It has now become Delhi’s largest and most successful nonprofit in TB control, with 34 TB treatment centers serving thousands of patients in a population of 1 million. Sandeep is leading Operation ASHA’s rapid expansion, which plans to serve a population of about 60 million by establishing 1000 DOTS centers by 2011.

Operation ASHA’s success is due its innovative treatment approach: delivering the services to the doorsteps of the disadvantaged. As a result, Operation ASHA has dramatically improved patient outcomes, successfully overcoming the many barriers to treatment, including destitution, poverty, illiteracy, and poor environmental conditions. Patient default rate, traditionally up to 60% in slum communities, has been cut down to virtually zero. Not only that, Operation ASHA is highly cost-effective and spends only $15 in which each patient is provided with high quality treatment and personal counseling for the entire therapy, which lasts 6-9 months. Operation ASHA’s many achievements have earned it praise from the WHO, CDC and Indian Government.