Sankaran (85) breathed his last at 10.20 AM, family members said.
Awarded the Padma Shree in 1972, he was best known for setting up the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) at Kanpur in 1972.
Sankaran graduated as the best out-going student from Stanley Medical College in Chennai in 1948 with Gold Medal and went for training in Orthopedic Surgery at the New York Orthopedic Hospital from 1951 to 1955.
After qualifying as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Canada, in 1955, Sankaran worked with the legendary professor John Charnley (who designed the first total hip replacement system) at Manchester Royal Infirmary in 1955.
A year later, he joined the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and continued till 1967, first as Assistant and then as Associate Professor.
In 1967, Sankaran became Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the Maulana Azad Medical College, a position he held till 1970. Then he became Director Professor Central Institute of Orthopedics, New Delhi. He was instrumental in building the institute as the most famous Orthopaedic Centre in the country. He held this position till 1978 when he was appointed as Director General of Health Services, Government of India.
He was selected to the World Health Organisation as a Director in one of the largest divisions of WHO, Geneva in February 1981.
As a Principal Investigator on research projects to the Technology Mode in Rehabilitation of the Department of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment he has investigated over 1,000 patients for design of orthopaedic implants for Indian patients.
