"It was a wonderful experience interacting with you and appreciate the way you have planned and executed the whole publication process within the agreed timelines.”
Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
A firsthand account of the courageous and determined effort, helmed by the author, to combat the devastation caused by the AIDS epidemic in India and later in Asia Pacific region. Fighting immeasurable odds at a time when India carried the second largest disease burden in the world, the author steered the ship of the Indian Government’s response through its most critical stage. The story continues as the author takes the reins of UNAIDS, the Joint UN programme on AIDS in the Asia Pacific region, and aligns the organisation to the needs of those countries. The author then presents an unbiased and critical assessment as the Special Envoy to the UN Secretary General on the current faltering of AIDS response in Asia Pacific. This book is a summary of the roles essayed by the author as policy maker, programmer, advocate and activist for HIV/AIDS in a career spanning over two decades.
J.V.R. Prasada Rao
Prasada Rao is a former Health Secretary with the Government of India and a former Special Envoy of United Nations Secretary-General on AIDS. He hails from a family of poets and scholars in Andhra Pradesh, India, and has a distinguished academic career with post-graduation in Nuclear Physics from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. He joined the Indian Administrative Service, the premier civil service of India, and held important positions at the state, district and central government level. He has spent his last 7 years of public service in the Health Ministry and drove major policy initiatives. He moved from the government to the UN system to lead the joint UN programme on AIDS in Asia Pacific region. As a science graduate he believed in scientific evidence and strove to provide that for AIDS responses in India and Asia Pacific region. He could easily associate himself with the communities who are central to the pandemic and worked relentlessly on their empowerment.
