I am a Psychiatrist with professional focus exclusively in the area of addiction psychiatry. After obtaining my post-graduate specialization in Psychiatry from the prestigious, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi, I realized I wanted exposure to the public health and policy aspects of drug addiction and hence I worked as Research Officer with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), South Asia for two years. Subsequently, I joined the academia as a faculty member at the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC), AIIMS, New Delhi.

In this position, besides (a) delivering clinical care to patients affected by drug use disorders, I have been taking a keen interest in (b) training, capacity-building and human resource development in the area of addiction psychiatry, and (c) conducting research on various aspects of drug use behaviours including generating evidence base on the extent of drug use. Realizing that evidence-based treatment and care for those affected by drug use disorders should be widely available, I have also been involved in (d) developing, testing and scaling- up low-cost, sustainable models of treatment. My inclination towards public-health aspects of drug use has resulted in me receiving the prestigious “BMJ South Asia Award 2016”.