New Delhi:
US-based Indian-origin urologist Dr Ash Tewari, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently, said the prime minister is “very much ahead of his time” when it comes to health care and policies as he “is thinking about a global scale.”
Dr Tewari, the father-in-law of American entrepreneur and politician Vivek Ramaswamy, said PM Modi’s vision is also focussed on how technology innovation, which is happening across the world, can be leveraged into making healthcare available to every part of India.
“And that was really very inspiring because I personally think that as a doctor, we can reach out to 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 patients in the next 10 years,” Dr Tewari told NDTV in the special show ‘NDTV Dialogues’.
“But if we combine technology, vision and latest knowledge and use these platforms to deliver it to the right audience, I think we can literally reach out to a billion. And in India’s case, literally billions. And that is what the synergy was. He is very progressive, very thoughtful… He’s really thinking deep into this process, how every Indian can benefit from what is happening across the world in healthcare and technology, and how to combine them,” Dr Tewari said.
His son-in-law also met with PM Modi during the prime minister’s visit to the US recently. To a question on what they discussed, the world-renowned cancer specialist in urology and prostate cancer told NDTV that Mr Ramaswamy had “very fruitful, thoughtful, in-depth, and collaborative discussions with Prime Minister Modi.”
“I think those discussions are for Mr Modi and for Vivek to kind of expand on. But I can see that things were happening in a very positive way,” Dr Tewari said.
“… I can talk more about not just Vivek, but my daughter Apurva, who is, in my mind, an equal star, who was born in India, came here when she was about three years of age, and became a student at Yale, Columbia, Cornell, and became an ENT surgeon,” Dr Tewari said, adding they have been married for nearly a decade.
“And Vivek has his own calling… I always thought that I wanted to grow up to become the father-in-law of someone or father of someone, rather than me being known for my name. That’s exactly what’s happening. I’m so proud to have my son, Akash, my daughter, Apurva, and Vivek, who is my son-in-law. And I have a daughter-in-law, also. Her name is Tanya. All of them, they are part of this whole equation. And the biggest star in this family is my wife, Mamta,” he said.
Dr Tewari is at the top of his field in New York, in a sense, as a brand ambassador for India. On how he kept those bridges alive between India and US in global health and technology, and giving back, Dr Tewari said, “The roots, they are always connected to you. And the world has become one unified platform. America is amazing in terms of this melting pot of every person who wants to come and make some effort and do something special.”
“I had a lucky journey, and as I always say, it’s not just my journey, it’s my family’s journey, it’s my friend’s journey, it’s my mentor’s journey. But I am at a point that I can make an impact. And why only impact a few people around me? Why not everywhere where we can? So India happens to be, I understand India because I grew up to be about 30 years of age when I was in India.
“… But knowledge which I have acquired here, things which I know are working here… time is just right to make an impact and make an impact not just in India, but everywhere else in the world… And I think the cancer journey is becoming one of the very important journeys nowadays. Cancer is a great unifier because it doesn’t differentiate between who will get it. Anyone can get it. At this point, there are enough people living with cancer that they can replace the entire country of Canada.
“So it’s a big disease right now. Heart used to be, heart still is, but we are doing a great job as a medical profession in making a dent on that. With that, life expectancy is going up and cancer is kind of popping out to kind of claim the number one, number two spot in terms of how significant it is. Cancer is a very challenging journey. And we can learn a lot from every part of the world,” Dr Tewari said.