The founder of Sankara Netralaya Dr.S.S Badrinath passed away in Chennai today due to illness. He was 83. Born on February 1940, Dr. S.S. Badrinath graduated from Madras Medical College in 1962. He pursued his post-graduation in the United States. After returning to India in 1970, he worked with the Voluntary Health Services in Adyar.
He was closely associated with the Sankara Mutt as he performed a cataract surgery on his spiritual guru Chandrasekara Saraswathi Swamigal.
He founded the Sankara Nethralaya as a unit of the Medical Research Foundation in 1978. He was a recipient of the Padma Shri in 1983 and Padma Bhushan in 1999.
The institution which he founded has become iconic, a symbol of the progress of modern medicine.