Pallium India founder Dr MR Rajagopal has won the Iconic Changemaker award at the businessline Changemaker Awards 2026 for his contribution to expanding palliative care and integrating relief from suffering into healthcare.
The award was received on his behalf by Poonam Bagai, Vice-Chairman, Pallium India, and founder chairman of CanKids, who credited him with transforming India’s and the world’s understanding of suffering and the collective responsibility to relieve it.
An anaesthesiologist, Rajagopal has worked for decades to bring physical, social, mental and spiritual well-being into patient care, alongside the diagnosis and treatment of disease.
Speaking while accepting the award, Bagai recalled meeting Rajagopal more than two decades ago and learning from him about palliative care.
Recounting her own experience with cancer, she said that while doctors focused on curing the disease, she had learnt to focus on healing herself. Listening to Rajagopal subsequently helped her understand the role of palliative care in addressing such needs.
She described his work as providing relief from pain, dignity in suffering and the assurance that people need not face serious illness alone.
Besides, Bagai highlighted his contribution to policy reforms, research, education and outreach, alongside the wider community’s efforts to integrate palliative care into healthcare.
Rajagopal founded Pallium India in 2003 to advance this integration across the country. Earlier, in 1993, he had, along with others, established the Pain and Palliative Care Society at the Medical College in Kozhikode.
The initiative combined medical services with community participation. Volunteers connected patients with the medical system, made regular visits and helped arrange financial assistance where required.
Subsequently, Rajagopal was instrumental in shaping Keralam’s Palliative Care Policy in 2008. The policy supported a decentralised system involving trained palliative care nurses at the panchayat level.
He also led the development of National Standards for Palliative Care and contributed to the establishment of the National Programme for Palliative Care in 2012.
Another area of intervention was access to essential pain-relief medicines. His sustained advocacy contributed to the 2014 amendment to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, which helped improve legal access to morphine.
Through Pallium India, training programmes and virtual modules have reached doctors, nurses, volunteers and caregivers across 59 cities.
Published on September 22, 2026
English (US) · 
French (CA) · 
French (FR) ·