Meet India's Soumya Swaminathan, the new deputy director general at WHO

The director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research, Soumya Swaminathan, has been appointed as the deputy director general of programmes of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

She would be holding the second-highest position in the global body, working under Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who took over this July.

The 58-year-old Swaminathan is a paediatrician and a clinical scientist, known for her research on tuberculosis.

She was earlier the director of the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai. She is the daughter of MS Swaminathan (92), the acclaimed Indian geneticist and father of green revolution.

Swaminathan will be the deputy director general for programmes (DDG) and Jane Ellison will be the deputy director general for corporate operations (DDC), said the WHO director general, while announcing his senior leadership team today.

Swaminathan has served as the director general of the ICMR, an apex body in India for biomedical research, for over two years now.