About Charaka
CHARAKA is envisioned as a state-backed centre of excellence, multi-stakeholder platform to accelerate healthcare innovation by bridging systemic gaps across infrastructure, regulation, and translation, moving beyond a typical incubation model to an integrated ecosystem enabler.
- Institutional Platform: Anchored under the Department of IT, BT&ST, the CoE operates as a long-term institutional mechanism with strategic oversight.
- Multi-Stakeholder Governance: Led by a high-calibre leadership integrating government, academia, industry, and clinical expertise.
- Addressing India’s Dual Health Burden: Targets both rising NCDs and persistent gaps in primary care, diagnostics, and access.
- Building Autonomy: Strengthens indigenous MedTech innovation to reduce reliance on imported medical devices.
- Shared High-End Infrastructure: Provides regulatory-aware labs, testing facilities, and translational infrastructure otherwise inaccessible to startups/MSMEs.
- End-to-End Innovation Support: Covers the full lifecycle: clinical need identification → prototyping → validation → low-volume manufacturing → incubation.
- Bridging Ecosystem Silos: Acts as a “connective tissue” linking clinicians, engineers, researchers, manufacturers, investors, and policymakers.
- Leveraging India & Karnataka’s Strengths: Builds on state & country’s dense ecosystem of hospitals, research institutions, GCCs, and deep-tech startups. Starting from Bengaluru, Karnataka, to India and the World.
- Accelerating Time-to-Market: De-risks innovation pathways and shortens commercialization cycles.
- Global-Local Integration: Aligns with initiatives like Assistive Tech CoEs, integrated medicine, and global programs such as Stanford Biodesign to enable cross-border innovation flow.
Board of Directors
Dr. Manjula.N IAS
Secretary to Government, Dept. of EI,
IT,Bt
and S&T, GoK
Mr. Rahul Sharanappa Sankanur IAS
Director, Dept. of E,IT and Bt, GoK and
Managing Director,KITS
Board Members
Mr. Prashanth Prakash
Chairman, Karnataka Startup Vision
Group
Dr Vijay Chandru
Co founder and Director, Strand Life
Sciences
| Commissioner,Lancet Citizen's Commission on reimageining India's
health System
Dr M Vijay Kumar
Pro Vice Chancellor, Yenepoya
University
Dr K Ravi
Professor, BMCRI
Dr Bhagwan
Vice Chancellor, RGUHS
Gurudatt Hegde IAS
Commissioner, Department of Health
and Family Welfare, GoK
Team
Dr Bhaskar Rajakumar
CEO, CHARAKA