Since its establishment in 1983, Apollo Hospitals has become a pioneer of modern healthcare in India. As the nation’s first for-profit hospital, it revolutionized private healthcare.
Over the decades, Apollo expanded its footprint across India and beyond, establishing a robust network of hospitals, pharmacies, diagnostic clinics and telemedicine services.
Sangita Reddy has witnessed this incredible journey from the very beginning, serving in a variety of roles, culminating in her current position as joint Managing Director.
“When we began, we were trying to introduce a new concept of healthcare,” Reddy tells The CEO Magazine.
“Back in those days, the very rich went abroad for treatment; people in the middle-income bracket went to charitable hospitals and got a certain degree of care; while the very poor went to government hospitals.
“My father, Prathap Reddy, founded the company and quickly created an ecosystem of advanced technology, good leadership and the best medical professionals.”
“What you’re seeing is the unfolding of not just the scaling of advanced healthcare, but also the creation of an ecosystem of caring.”
Arguably, one of the company’s biggest initiatives was creating the Apollo Health Association, whose primary objective was to enable people to access healthcare by promoting the concept of health insurance across India.
“My father told the health minister, ‘I’m doing advanced surgeries and saving people, but they’re selling their land or pawning their family jewelry for access to care.’ So the minister inaugurated Apollo Health Insurance, and we began the journey of creating health insurance,” Reddy says.
The seeds of success
This started with the construction of a 100-bed hospital in her father’s home village of Aragonda in Andhra Pradesh, the launch of health insurance, which cost just one rupee per day, and initiatives that looked at the foundations of healthcare, such as clean drinking water, sanitation and nutrition.
“Aragonda became a showcase model of holistic healthcare. It was an anchoring moment for us to realize this has to be a rural, replicable and scalable model,” Reddy explains.
Following this success, Apollo Hospitals grew rapidly, opening major new hospitals across the country while also improving the entire healthcare ecosystem through education, technology and, of course, financing.
“The great part of the story is that now insurance covers about 55 percent of India’s population, and it all began in this small village with just a population of 700,” she says. “But it began with the conviction that people should have access to healthcare.”
“Women like me are privileged to study and have work opportunities, but there is so much more to be done in the equity space.”
Today, Apollo Hospitals operates an extensive network across India, with 73 hospitals, 120 primary care and diagnostic clinics and 500 telemedicine centers, making it one of the largest and most trusted healthcare providers in the country.
“Inspired by the trust that people have in us, we said we needed to do more, so we started our pharmacy chain,” Reddy reveals. “Today we have over 6,000 pharmacies and are adding almost one pharmacy per day.
“What you’re seeing is the unfolding of not just the scaling of advanced healthcare, but also the creation of an ecosystem of caring because all these things were not previously available.”
Advancing holistic healthcare
Throughout Apollo Hospitals’ history, leveraging the latest technology has always been a priority, leading it to introduce many firsts. These include launching South-East Asia’s first proton therapy center and digital PET/CT scanner, being the first medical provider in Asia to offer robotic spine surgery, as well as pioneering India’s first comprehensive connected care program, which integrates real-time patient monitoring across various care touchpoints.
“Eventually it became very important for us to empower people with knowledge to help them stay healthy because purely having surgery and curative medicine is not the answer,” Reddy points out.
“So about three years ago, we completely redid our preventive health checkup to introduce AI-enabled risk scoring. We created a customized list of tests that is suitable for patients based on their condition, history and genetic makeup.
“Following the tests, we provide a mentoring platform that nudges the user toward making the lifestyle changes required. This has helped people lose weight, bring down hypertension, get their diabetes under control and more.”
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Beyond her role with Apollo Hospitals, Reddy has been actively involved in many prestigious organizations and initiatives to advance healthcare and social welfare. These include being a participant in the World Economic Forum, the Technology Development Board of India, the Rockefeller Working Group and the Organ Donation Bank.
“I’ve also worked a lot in the space of women’s advocacy because I believe equity for women is critical,” she says.
“As part of this, I headed G20 Empower, an initiative launched in 2019 during the G20 Osaka Summit, aimed at accelerating women’s leadership and empowerment in the private sector across G20 countries.
“Women like me are privileged to study and have work opportunities, but there is so much more to be done in the equity space.”
“We are not driven by venture capital nor by returns, we are driven by the smile of our patients.”
Looking ahead, Reddy’s plans for Apollo Hospitals include increasing the number of beds and enhancing capabilities while also continuing to promote preventive healthcare, access to healthcare and pioneering treatments through the use of AI and other advanced technologies.
While Apollo Hospitals has transformed India’s healthcare over the past four decades, its journey is far from over as the company grows from strength to strength, bringing advanced healthcare to those who need it. Recently, Reddy’s long-running efforts in expanding Apollo Hospitals to provide more services and healthcare were recognized in The CEO Magazine‘s 2025 Executive of the Year Awards – India, when she was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
“There’s a very powerful statement from Simon Sinek, who said, ‘It’s not what you do, but why you do it.’ We do it to keep people healthy, to bring health to the country and to enable global access to healthcare,” she says.
“We are not driven by venture capital nor by returns, we are driven by the smile of our patients.”
