Adar Poonawalla

Adar Poonawalla (born 14 January 1981) is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Serum Institute of India. Founded in 1966 by his father, Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, it is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced.

Education

Adar Poonawalla was educated at The Bishop's School (Pune), St Edmund's School Canterbury followed by the University of Westminster.

Career

Adar Poonawalla joined Serum Institute of India in 2001 after graduating from the University of Westminster in London. While exporting its products to 35 countries, Poonawalla concentrated on the company's international market, new products license and getting pre-qualified by the World Health Organization for supply to United Nations Agencies including UNICEF and PAHO. As of 2015, he has helped the company export its products to over 140 countries; 85 percent of its revenues are from overseas.

In 2011, he became the CEO of Serum Institute of India with full control of day-to-day operations of the company. In 2012 he played a major role in the acquisition of Bilthoven Biologicals, a Netherlands-based government vaccine manufacturing company. Poonawalla is a board member of the GAVI Alliance, the global vaccine alliance.

He initiated and launched in 2014; Serum Institute's oral polio vaccine, which became a bestseller for the company. It was reported that he planned to expand the product portfolio to include vaccines for dengue, flu and cervical cancer during the same year.

In 2017, Adar Poonawalla also aided in the acquisition of Praha Vaccine Limited in the Czech Republic in 2017. On 31 May 2021, he was appointed as the chairman of Poonawalla Fincorp,[15] after acquiring a 66% stake in the financial services company. In 2021, Adar was included on the Time 100, Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Sambit Patra

Sambit Patra (born 13 December 1974) is an Indian politician and surgeon who serves as the Member of Parliament from the Puri constituency since 4 June 2024. He has served as the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party since 2014 and currently serving as a chairman in tourism department since November 2021. Patra had his first job at Hindu Rao Hospital. He was appointed an independent director of the board of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) in 2017. On 30 November 2021, Patra was appointed Chairman of the India Tourism Development Corporation.

Patra was born in an Odia family to Rabindra Nath Patra on 13 December 1974 in Bokaro Steel City, then part of Dhanbad district of the state of Bihar, which is now a part of Bokaro district of Jharkhand. His father worked in the Bokaro Steel Plant. He did his primary and intermediate schooling in Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Bokaro. He did his MBBS from VSS Medical College and Hospital, Burla, Sambalpur, Odisha in 1997 and his Master of Surgery (MS) in General Surgery from SCB Medical College, Cuttack, Utkal University in 2002. He qualified the UPSC Combined Medical Services Examination in 2003 and joined Rao Hospital (located in Malka Ganj, Delhi) as a Medical Officer.

Political career

Patra's political career started in 2010 when he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party as a spokesperson for its Delhi unit. In 2012, Patra unsuccessfully fought a municipal election as the BJP's candidate from Delhi's Kashmiri Gate and at the same time resigned from his job to pursue politics full-time. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, Patra campaigned for the BJP and gained visibility on national television. When the BJP came to power, Patra became its national spokesperson. In 2017, Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) appointed him as a non-official director of ONGC.

Patra contested the Puri Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 Indian general election, and lost to sitting Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member Pinaki Misra by 11,700 votes. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Patra again contesting from Puri, defeated Arup Patnaik of Biju Janata Dal by a margin of 104,709.