Sonia Dasgupta, Managing director and CEO, Investment Banking, JM Financial
Image: Mexy Xavier

The Queen’s Gambit as a strategy is a calculated risk that provides a chess player with a competitive edge. For Sonia Dasgupta, managing director and CEO, investment banking, JM Financial, it isn’t just a move but her entire approach to business. In a career spanning almost 30 years, she has consistently shown her ability to make daring moves and drive growth in the face of uncertainty.

Dasgupta has been a pivotal force in driving the success of JM Financial’s investment banking division, which she has been heading since April 2022. Under her leadership, the company has achieved milestones, including groundbreaking transactions. She has held key leadership positions at the company, including head of FIG (financial institution group) coverage, head of M&A origination, and head of group borrowings.

Sanjiv Bajaj, chairman and managing director, Bajaj Finserv, says, “I have had the pleasure of working with Dasgupta for over two decades across numerous fundraising and M&A deals. With her vast experience, she is able to structure deals with a clear customer focus.” He adds that she works with passion, looking for the best outcomes from every deal. “She has an excellent acumen and leads with clarity and conviction, making her an effective leader. She is a believer in building lasting relationships and I am confident she will take her firm to greater heights, providing inspiration to others.”

Born and raised in Mumbai, Dasgupta was part of a family of six siblings where education and intellectual pursuits were valued. Her mother, a homemaker and a writer of Hindi literature, and her father, a lawyer with a strong emphasis on academics, instilled in her a deep respect for knowledge and learning, she says.

April 25 has been recognised globally by the World Health Organization (WHO) as World Malaria Day (previously African Malaria Day), since 2006 to highlight the need for continued investment and innovation. The “butterfly effect” from chaos theory might result in a Tornado, but the “mosquito effect” (through the parasite it carries) has fundamentally altered human migration patterns, enabling European colonisation and reshaping the geopolitical landscape of entire continents. The mosquito, a seemingly insignificant insect, wielded astonishing power and profoundly altered human civilisation. Malaria, derived from the Italian “mala aria,” meaning “bad air”, is a saga of discovery, colonisation, human suffering and scientific breakthroughs.

Miasma to parasite

Before modern science unravelled malaria’s secrets, people believed it was caused by miasma—poisonous air emanating from marshes. It wasn’t until 1880 that the French military doctor Alphonse Laveran observed the malaria parasite from the blood of soldiers who had succumbed to fever in Algeria. However, identifying the parasite was just the first puzzle; the full picture of malaria’s transmission remained elusive. In 1885-86, Camillo Golgi and Angelo Celli demonstrated the cyclical nature of the fever in relation to the parasite. In 1892, Ettore Marchiafava further characterised the five species of the parasite, distinguishing Plasmodium falciparum from others. Of notable mention is Patrick Manson, often regarded as the ‘father of tropical medicine,’ who first established the role of mosquitoes in disease transmission with filariasis and later mentored Ronald Ross. In 1894, Manson hypothesised that mosquitoes could transmit malaria, too. Ross, inspired by Manson’s theory, identified the parasite in the gut of the Anopheles mosquito after studying avian malaria in birds in 1897. His breakthrough paved the way for understanding human disease. Giovanni Battista Grassi made significant contributions by linking human malaria to the female Anopheles mosquito in 1898. By 1898, the complete transmission cycle of malaria was scientifically understood.

Before these discoveries, European colonial efforts in Africa were severely constrained by extraordinarily high mortality rates. In coastal African colonial trade posts, European troop mortality averaged 500 deaths per 1,000 soldiers annually in the 1800s, with those venturing inland facing even worse prospects of up to 60% mortality. In 1865, a British parliamentary committee recommended withdrawing from West Africa altogether due to disease threats. When the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) became a colony in 1874, the first three candidates declined the governor’s position due to “health concerns”, and the fourth died of malaria within a month of taking office. Consequently, until 1870, European powers controlled only 10% of the African continent, with settlements primarily restricted to coastal areas. Africa was known as “the white man’s grave,” a place where European colonial ambitions perished.

The correlation between understanding malaria and colonial expansion is striking. As scientists decoded malaria’s mysteries between 1880 and 1900, European powers dramatically expanded their control across Africa. Following the 1884 Berlin Conference, which regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa, the “Scramble for Africa” accelerated rapidly. By 1914, European powers had seized control of nearly 90% of the continent, with only Liberia, Ethiopia, and a few more maintaining independence. This was no coincidence. With knowledge about malaria transmission, colonial administrators implemented targeted prevention strategies for European settlements: draining mosquito-breeding swamps, establishing segregated European quarters, and creating hill stations at higher elevations with fewer mosquitoes. Scientific findings about malaria transmission quickly percolated into colonial policy. By 1901, the British adopted a policy of segregated living based on new knowledge about Anopheles mosquitoes and the racist perception of Africans as disease reservoirs.

Scramble for Africa

King Leopold II of Belgium epitomised this exploitation in the brutal colonisation of the Congo. Equipped with quinine, mosquito nets, and a scientific understanding of malaria, European troops subdued resistance and established lucrative colonies. Quinine, derived from the bark of the Cinchona tree, was discovered during Portuguese conquests in South America. Its use post-1880s was guided by scientific understanding. But, the success of colonizing Africa was not purely biological. Innovations and technology to build railroads, steamships, enhanced rifles, and telegraphs helped navigate and control vast territories. But, knowledge about malaria transmission was the “keystone technology”. It neutralised nature’s deadliest resistance, allowing soldiers to survive and civil servants to administer colonial machinery.

The impact of malaria extended beyond Africa. In the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Africans with a natural genetic resistance to malaria were preferred labour in malaria-infested regions like the Caribbean and the Americas. Consequently, they were traded at higher prices than European labourers, who succumbed to the disease. It created a racialised labour economy, the aftershocks of which echo even today. The modern racial tensions in American and European societies bear this genetic legacy. The valuation of African bodies not only established brutal slavery systems but also seeded pseudo-scientific justifications for racial superiority. Thus, malaria contributed to the present long-standing racial prejudices and social structures.

Malaria today

With quinine as a base, more refined drugs like chloroquine and artemisinin followed. Insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor spraying revolutionised prevention. Today, the malaria vaccine RTS,S brings new hope, though challenges persist. Malaria remains treatable, but Africa still shoulders 94% of the global burdens (as per the WHO World Malaria Report 2024). Beyond medicine, malaria is increasingly considered in modern environmental impact assessments. Deforestation, water stagnation, and climate change influence mosquito habitats, making disease control part of ecological planning.

While colonial empires have dissolved, malaria’s grip remains strong, particularly in Africa. Today, malaria continues to afflict approximately 263 million people annually, killing over 600,000, with Africa reporting 95% of the mortality. Although the death toll has decreased substantially, in absolute numbers, malaria remains a major public health challenge. The history of the discovery of malaria transmission is a powerful reminder that scientific breakthroughs can have complex and contradictory impacts. The discoveries that eventually saved millions of lives also enabled colonial exploitation. Knowledge intended to heal the troops was wielded to subjugate the natives.

(Dr. C. Aravinda is an academic and public health physician. The views expressed are personal. aravindaaiimsjr10@hotmail.com)

Panellists at the session on ‘Healthtech Innovations: Revolutionising Healthcare in Tamil Nadu’ held at the summit on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: B. VELANKANNI RAJ

Healthcare industry requires technology intervention at all levels — from patient care to maintaining hospital records and even a hospital’s functioning. The opportunities are many for the passionate. Often a personal setback or requirement triggers innovation and a start-up is born, said panellists at a session on ‘Healthtech Innovations: Revolutionising Healthcare in Tamil Nadu’ on Thursday.

The event was presented by The Hindu and SRM Institute of Science and Technology and co-presented by StartupTN in association with Sify Technologies.

Neurosurgeon K. Ganapathy, who moderated the session, recalled his days as a practising clinician, when advanced technology was non-existent. In his generation, students learned by practising on patients but today’s medical students could learn through simulation laboratories.

In fact, the National Medical Commission had mandated simulation laboratories, said Adith Chinnaswami, a laparoscopic surgeon and co-founder of MediSim VR. Boopesh Pugazhendi, consultant neurosurgeon at Naruvi Hospital, Vellore, said the hospital had gone paperless, a concept that patients and hospital staff equally found difficult to grasp. According to him, the challenge was training the hospital staff.

Lallu Joseph, quality manager and associate general superintendent at Christian Medical College, Vellore, recalled a personal experience to explain how healthcare innovations happen.

“Technology is transforming healthcare delivery. There are kids who are revolutionising healthcare,” she said, explaining how their passion for tracking race cars helped a couple of youngsters come up with contactless remote monitoring of vital parameters for their uncle who was being treated at the hospital.

Hospitals made it a practice now to install sensors under patients’ beds to monitor them. Use of apps to monitor workforce had improved patient satisfaction, she said.

Dr. Boopesh said clinical history taking in hospitals had undergone a transformation with the introduction of technology. The State government used technology to monitor the outbreak of diseases such as dengue and pneumonia. The high penetration of smartphones had helped the State monitor non-communicable diseases in the population, he added.

“It is more reverse engineering,” said Dr. Lallu about the digital transformation in healthcare. She urged youngsters to visit hospitals and see if their idea could solve a problem.

Dr. Ganapathy agreed that any innovator who showed evidence that technology could transform a service in the healthcare sector would receive support to develop their product.

Dr. Adith said now there were 250 students per MBBS class and with clinical material in short supply, virtual reality labs were an option to ensure that a healthcare professional could have a certifiable level of competency before starting to treat patients.

It is important to talk to persons who know the subject, said Dr. Ganapathy. Healthcare products must be clinically validated, and there are technicalities that a lay innovator may be unaware of.

Innovators could rope in doctors or hospitals to have their innovation tested. Their feedback would not only help fine-tune the product but also convince a funding agency to offer financial support, Dr. Lallu said.

Dr. Adith said simulation laboratories were welcome in medical colleges. “There was never any modality (to find out) whether a student knows how to handle an emergency. Now, we have one,” he said.