Welcome to Sevartha Foundation
THE MAN BEHIND THE MISSION
Dr. Dilip Ramdas Pawar has spent more than 30 years doing both — but it is the second kind of doctoring that brought him here, to this centre, to this mission.
Born and trained in Mumbai, then did his fellowship at UCSF, USA and also trained at Harvard Medical School, USA, the most reputed Medical school in the world. Dr. Pawar has walked the wards of some of the world's most demanding medical environments. He has led clinical trials across four continents. He has developed life-saving drugs approved globally. He has held senior leadership positions at some of India's most respected pharmaceutical companies. He has been recognized by the Indian Medical Association, the Times of India, India Today, and even the Guinness Book of World Records.
And yet, what drives him — what has always driven him — is something far simpler than accolades: the belief that no person should die in pain and no family should face the end alone.
Dr. Pawar’s academic and clinical credentials are among the most extensive of any practicing palliative medicine specialist in India.
Completed Observer Postdoctoral Fellowship in Palliative Medicine at Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital, Mumbai — India’s foremost cancer centre.
Dr. Pawar has a rare distinction in Indian medicine: he has been involved in not one, but multiple first-in-the-world and first-in-India achievements.
He led the clinical development of Pegasparginase — a chemotherapy drug for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia — through Phase II and Phase III trials in India, culminating in CDSCO approval and subsequent marketing across European countries.
He conducted India’s landmark Phase III trial of Tenecteplase in stroke patients — and secured what became the first global approval for this molecule in stroke indication — a first for the world, achieved from India.
He served as Global Medical Director Overseeing Phase I, II, and III trials in breakthrough cancer pain across Poland, the United Kingdom, and Thailand.
He has contributed to clinical trials presented at ASCO, ESMO, ESMO Asia, and MASCC — the world’s most prestigious oncology conferences.
He has published more than 180 scientific papers in national and international journals and holds 11 granted patents with 108 more applied globally.
He established the first Memory Clinics guidelines for dementia in India, setting up more than thirty memory clinics across the country.
He helped India become only the second country in the world to receive approval for vascular dementia treatment.
When the pandemic struck Mumbai in 2020, Dr. Pawar did not retreat. He stepped forward.
He treated more than 5,000 COVID-19 patients across Seven Hills Hospital and BDBA Shatabdi Municipal Hospital. He set up quarantine centres for the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai. He built a 100-bed COVID hospital — including a 10-bed ICU — in Khed Village, in the Konkan region of Ratnagiri, serving patients who had no other access to care.
For this work, he received the Corona Warrior Award from the Indian Medical Association, the Times of India, India Today, the Indian Red Cross Society, the Mumbai Municipal Corporation, and the Maharashtra State Government — among many others.
He also served as an honorary doctor for the Mumbai Police Force, providing screening and treatment throughout the pandemic.
Dr. Pawar completed the Global Clinical Scholar Research Training (GCSRT) programme at Harvard Medical School — one of the most rigorous research training programmes in the world — graduating with Distinction.
This Harvard training deepened his expertise in clinical research methodology and evidence-based medicine, and reinforced his commitment to ensuring that the palliative care provided at Sevartha Foundation is grounded not just in compassion, but in science.
Dr. Pawar holds honorary positions that reflect the breadth of his commitment to medicine and society:
He has organised some of India’s largest cancer screening camps, including one of the biggest breast cancer screening programmes ever conducted in the country, earning recognition in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2016.
He is Trustee and Executive Director at Sevartha Foundation — named from the Sanskrit roots meaning “service for the sake of all” — to bring quality healthcare and education to rural and underprivileged communities across Maharashtra and beyond.
“I have sat beside hundreds of patients in their final hours. I have watched families fall apart under the weight of grief they were never prepared for. I have seen pain go untreated because no one knew it could be treated differently. That is why this centre exists…. To give them a good life, for whatever time they have left. That is all. That is everything.”
Though the time is limited…Happiness should not be limited — Dr. Dilip Ramdas Pawar
I am delighted and deeply honored to share that I have received a special invitation from the President of ASCO, to attend the prestigious ASCO President’s Reception and Dinner in Chicago.
This recognition is not only a proud personal milestone but also a moment of pride for our Foundation. I am grateful for the opportunity to represent our country, our patients, and the cancer advocacy community on this esteemed international platform.
Thank you to all my colleagues, friends, mentors, and well-wishers whose encouragement and support have been an integral part of this journey.
🇮🇳 Proud to represent India at ASCO 2026. 🇮🇳
Dr Dilip Pawar
