Anurag Bhargava specialized in Internal Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and did a Masters in Epidemiology from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Medicine, and the Head of the Center for Nutrition Studies at Yenepoya (Deemed to be University) in Mangalore, Karnataka, India. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University. He has extensive experience in the delivery of healthcare in low-resource settings across India and was involved in the founding of Jan Swasthya Sahayog (People’s Health Support Group) which runs a rural hospital and community health program in an underserved area in Central India. This program provides cost-effective primary and secondary care based on the essential medicines concept as well as access to essential diagnostics at all levels.

His areas of work have included tuberculosis, nutrition, acute febrile illnesses, and non-communicable diseases. He has formulated an approach to the diagnosis and management of acute febrile illnesses in low resource settings, published in the British Medical Journal. He has been involved in the development of national guidelines for nutritional care and support of TB patients, for screening, diagnosis, evaluation and management of hypertension, and diagnosis and management of rickettsial infections. He received the British Medical Journal (India) award for the Research Paper of the Year in 2014, which estimated the proportion of tuberculosis incidence attributable to undernutrition in India. He is a member of the National Technical Working Group on TB and Comorbidities. He has been a resource person for the development of the National Essential Diagnostics List in India.