Former IAS officer Dr Syed Sabahat Azim lost his father during a surgery at a private hospital in Kolkata and the incident was the trigger-point for him as it prompted Azim to quit his job as an IAS officer to become an entrepreneur.
Azim resigned as IAS officer to launch the affordable healthcare chain Glocal Healthcare Systems (GHS) in 2010. Talking to a business daily, Azim once said that his father's death worked as a catalyst as he realised if such disaster can happen to his father due to lack of medical facilities then it can happen to any citizen of India.
Azim spends most of his time in Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal. "I did my medical degree from the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC), a constituent medical college of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). Then I joined the administrative service and served in various positions, including as Secretary to the Chief Minister of Tripua, Manik Sarkar. But I was feeling restless to do more which can give me some satisfaction as a human being," he once told IANS.
Azim was named the Social Entrepreneur of 2020 by the World Economic Forum's Schwab Foundation for Social Enterprise. The recognition came for his extraordinary work providing affordable healthcare to people living in rural parts of India.
"I come from Uttar Pradesh. I am a small-town person who has spent most of his time during service in rural India. I always felt the urge to make the world a better place in a sustainable way. Primarily as human beings, we all have multiple identities, be it our nationality, religion or as the person we are in real life. But none of them are important. I want to be known for the works I do in life. That is the only predominant factor," he said.
Azim launched GHS in a village with a small health centre of 30 beds. But after a few months of launching the first Glocal hospital at Sonamukhi in Bankura, Azim's hospital chain has come a long way. "We have presence in various West Bengal districts, including Birbhum, Bankura, Murshidabad, Burdwan, Darjeeling and Nadia," Azim said.
