Dinesh Arora

Dinesh Arora (born 23 December 1976) is an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, 2002 Kerala cadre, presently pursuing his doctoral studies in public health at Johns Hopkins University.

He is former Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship healthcare programme, Ayushman Bharat Yojana, in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Prior to this, he was the Director at NITI Aayog.

He was the Founder Mission Director of National Rural Health Mission, Kerala, Founder Managing Director of Kerala Medical Service Corporation Limited (KMSCL), and the first Food Safety Commissioner in the State of Kerala.

Arira was also worked as an executive director, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and CEO RECPDCL, Ministry of Power, Government of India.

Arora is proficient in English, Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, and Tamil.

Arora hails from Chandigarh, Punjab.

He completed his early education from DAV School, Panchkula and DAV College, Chandigarh before completed his MBBS in medicine surgery and acquired first division with distinction.

His father is a retired Director from Punjab Irrigation, mother is a homemaker, and has two elder sisters.

He is married to Ms. Mini Iyer and has two children.

In his free time, Arora plays chess, badminton, and enjoys watching cricket.

Arora cleared the prestigious IAS exam in 2002 and secured All India Rank 5, under which he was allotted the Kerala cadre.

Arora is a passionate health expert with over 25 years of experience in leading transformational public sector projects in India and southeast Asia.

As a medical doctor and IAS officer, he has vast experience of designing and implementing health sector interventions across all levels of administration.

As the State Mission Director, National Rural Health Mission, Kerala, Arora worked for nearly seven years as head of the Health Department, piloting National Health Programs & Health Insurance in Kerala.

Kerala has won the shield for best implementation State in Health Insurance schemes (RSBY) for three consecutive years during this time.

He commanded a 40,000 strong health staff and was highly successful in filling up critical gaps of human power, infrastructure, med supplies and drugs.

He pioneered compulsory rural service for all doctors, restructured nursing cadre, and championed reorganization of Health & Medical cadres and pioneered specialty cadres in health services.

He is credited with introducing IT based online reporting and monitoring which was adopted by Government of India as HMIS – Hospital based Monitoring Information System.

He also leveraged E- Banking from end to end for all financial transactions in the health programs and mainstreaming AYUSH and Naturopathy alongside starting a multidisciplinary training center for capacity building.

5 public hospitals were accredited with NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals) under his leadership.

20 innovations piloted by me were quoted as best practices by Government of India and the same were implemented in other States of the country.

As director (health) at Niti Ayog, Arora supervised the implementation of National Health Policy including a roadmap for Universal Health coverage with special emphasis on Comprehensive Primary Coverage.

He designed public-private partnership framework for demand-side financing scheme and non-communicable diseases as well as the Aspirational District Program for comprehensive reforms in health, nutrition, and education & agriculture for the poorest and vulnerable districts of the country.

He also designed a monitoring plan for grant utilization through a portal ‘NGO Darpan’ to track the spending of 10 million dollars annually to 35,000 NGOs.

Arora worked closely with CEO, NITI Aayog in implementing special projects aimed towards exploring evidence-based policy solutions to environmental pollution and biomass management, stressed power assets, monitoring sustainable Development Goals.

As the Founder Deputy CEO of the National Health Authority, he spearheaded the world's largest publicly funded health insurance scheme – Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana.

He was responsible for developing the overall scheme design including the central elements such as the coverage, target beneficiaries, IT systems, modes of implementation and list of treatments covered under PM-JAY.

He led the overall supervision of the strategy and operations division at NHA for Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY.

He also supervised multiple facets of the operations including coordination of Central Government with State Governments, formulation of operational guidelines, development of capacity building and information communication frameworks, assessment of strategic purchasing and development of monitoring and anti-fraud mechanisms.

Serving as the Ottappalan Sub-Collector, Arora took stern action against illegal sand-mining in the Bharathapuzha at Ottapalam, Pattambi, Thrithala, and Thiruvananthapuram.

The illegal mining of sand was carried out indiscriminately using covert means from ‘kadavus' in the capital district in Kerala.

No ‘kadavus' have been approved and no passes have been issued by geologists.

In spite of various directions and court orders, the concerned agencies had failed to control this illegal activity.

Quoting Shri Arora, The Hindu newspaper mentioned the local bodies that were auctioning sand had failed to stop illegal sand-mining, which had resulted in the destruction of the river.

His campaign in Kerala to ensure that schools comply with safety regulations is highly praised.

He took the charge to inforce various safety measures viz.

display ‘On school duty' boards on autorickshaws, cars, mini-vans and other hired while transporting students.

He also mandated maximum carriage capacity for Autorickshaws, 10 years of driving experience and an EIB driving permit for the drivers.

He made it mandatory for school buses to have a fire extinguisher, first-aid box, well-fortified windows, lockable doors and emergency exits.