Balu Sankaran
Balu Sankaran (4 September 1926 – 20 June 2012) was an Indian professor, scientist, and pioneer in rehabilitation. Born in Tamil Nadu, he earned his medical degree from Stanley Medical College in Chennai in 1948 and trained in the United States and United Kingdom—Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center (1951–1955) and Manchester Royal Infirmary (1955).
After a short teaching stint at KMC Manipal, he joined AIIMS Delhi in 1956 as an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery, becoming associate professor in 1963 and serving there until 1967. During this time, he did Rockefeller Foundation research at the University of Chicago.
He then became a professor at Maulana Azad Medical College until 1970 and served as director of the Central Institute of Orthopedics from 1970 to 1978. In 1981, he was offered the directorship of the World Health Organization in Geneva and worked there until 1987. He was the chairman of the Rehabilitation Council of India from 1992 to 1994.
While leading the Central Institute of Orthopedics, Sankaran helped set up the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India at Kanpur in 1972 and the National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research at Olatpur near Bhubaneswar in 1975, remaining the corporation’s chairman until 1981.
Later he became a professor emeritus at St Stephen’s Hospital in Delhi. He died on 20 June 2012 after a brief illness. He was married to Sukanya.
Awards: Padma Shri (1972) for trauma care and rehabilitation of soldiers injured in the 1971 Bangladesh war; Padma Vibushan (2007).
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 11:50 (CET).