The much-awaited Lokmat Maharashtrian of the Year Awards 2026, one of Maharashtra’s most prominent and widely discussed award ceremonies, was held today. The grand event was attended by several distinguished personalities including Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, veteran actor Aamir Khan and actor Vicky Kaushal, along with many other eminent guests from across the state. On this occasion, Dr Aarti Kinikar was honoured with the Lokmat Maharashtrian of the Year 2026 award in the Medical (Government – Maharashtra) category for her remarkable contribution and achievements in the field of public healthcare.
Dr Aarti Kinikar currently serves as the Deputy Dean, Professor and Head of the Department of Paediatrics at B. J. Government Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital in Pune. For more than four decades, she has been actively involved in teaching and research across various government medical colleges in Maharashtra. In 2017, she established a state-of-the-art Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with 59 beds at Sassoon Hospital, which provides life-saving treatment to 3,000 to 4,000 critically ill newborns every year. Dr Kinikar also took the lead in launching the DM Neonatology super-speciality programme. Since 2017, she has been running a state-level neonatal care training centre, where thousands of nurses have received specialised training.
She also established a BLS and PALS national training centre, through which 4,000–5,000 citizens have been trained in CPR. During a period when ventilators were scarce, she developed and patented the “Indigenous Bubble CPAP” ventilator circuit, helping save the lives of thousands of newborns. Dr Kinikar further set up Centres of Excellence for HIV, Tuberculosis, COVID-19 and Clinical Genetics in children. Since 2010, she has provided prenatal thalassemia diagnosis services, benefiting more than 300 expectant mothers.
In the field of genetics, she made a global breakthrough by identifying a new genetic mutation variant related to Neonatal Transient Diabetes Mellitus. Her research on HIV and tuberculosis also contributed to changes in WHO guidelines. She also established a Human Milk Bank in 2013 to support newborn nutrition. Since 2024, under the Congenital Hypothyroidism Screening Programme (CSR – free testing), 4,000 newborns have been screened, leading to early diagnosis in five infants. With over 200 international research publications, Dr Kinikar’s work has made a significant impact on neonatal and paediatric healthcare.