Sumit Garg Email & Phone Number

Sumit is a civil servant with a career spanning over 14 years. He graduated to become a medical doctor but driven to make a larger impact in the society, he took the civil services exam and joined the Indian Revenue Service (Indirect taxes). His passion lies in global health policy, access to affordable medicines and healthcare. He took a mid-career break to pursue Maters in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University with a prestigious scholarship from the World Bank (JJWBGSP). At Hopkins he concentrated in Health Systems and Policy along with a certificate program in Vaccine Science and Policy. His career has been shaped with a unique experience and blend of tax/trade and public health. His interests are badminton, singing, music and travelling. He worked in different roles in Indian Customs and gained first-hand experience in trade processes including enforcement of laws. In 2017, he moved to the Ministry of Finance where he learnt the art of making tax policy. In early 2020, he was deputed to the Department of Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for conceptualising support programs for the pharmaceutical and med-tech industry (PLI program and Industrial Parks program) with a government spend of INR 30,000 crores. He was also responsible for coordination with other Departments such as Department of Commerce (India’s FTA negotiations eg. India-Australia FTA, India-UK FTA, India-UAE FTA, India-EU FTA, EFTA etc.), Department of Revenue (tax matters including rationalising of customs duties on medical products), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (Make in India policy, Intellectual property, start-ups), Department of Health and Family Welfare (drug and medical device regulations), Department of Health Research (Health Technology assessment). He also presented India’s growth story of generic and biosimilar industry at the Health Forum in Colombia in June 2022. Under India’s G-20 presidency, he was member of health track guiding the agenda of collaboration for R&D and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.He was also involved the COVID-19 pandemic response of the Government of India especially in augmenting the supply of medical equipment in the public sector, coordinating with drugs and vaccine manufacturers for upscaling manufacturing and distribution across India. He was also a member of the Indian team representing the Quad Vaccine (supply and manufacturing) sub-group which focused on market access for COVID vaccine in the Indo-Pacific region.