Harilal Madhavan, a leading health economist in India, has been selected as a member of an international research team to analyse the interaction of health, technologies and societies in the context of COVID-19. The research team consists of 12 members from mostly European and Asian countries, and Harilal is the only one who represents India.
The team will meet at the National Research Academy of France, Paris for the next three years to collaboratively analyse various issues related to the changes in health systems and social impact of COVID-19, and develop international projects. The other members represent France, Japan, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, Taiwan, Korea and Canada. Harilal's name was nominated by French Academy based on his expertise in health economics and related fields.
Hailing from Venganur, a village in Thiruvananthapuram, Harilal did his post graduation in Economics, from Kariavattom Campus of the University of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram. He is currently a faculty member at the School of Humanities, in Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram.
He did his research in indigenous medicine and development from the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram and a post-doctorate from the French University in Puducherry.
Ever since 2005, he had been part of various institutes and universities as a teacher as well as a research fellow, including at the Azim Premji Foundation in Bengaluru; Wellcome Trust in the United Kingdom; and the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies New Delhi, among others. He was also a fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Harilal has been part of conducting internationally funded research projects on various fields of Asian medicine industries, health institutions and policies.
Harilal has presented papers in over 20 countries and is published in various journals. Apart from indigenous medicine and Intellectual Property Rights, his research interest also lies in biodiversity and the pharmaceutical industry.
He was part of the research project from 2016-19 called ‘Re-assembling Tibetan Medicine: The formation of a transnational Sowa Rigpa industry in contemporary India, China, Mongolia and Bhutan’, funded by the European Research Council.
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