“The difference between developed and developing economies is the way people are treated at every level of society,” says Kothari. “Not just at the top, but how people are treated at the middle and at the bottom, and I firmly believe a basic level of medical care is something everyone deserves.”

As a result, Kothari is currently at the MIT Sloan School of Management, formulating a two-part plan for making inexpensive medical tools and building low-cost clinics. In 2009-2010, Kothari is one of 16 fellows at MIT’s Legatum Center for Development & Entrepreneurship, which promotes “bottom-up” global development through technology. Two other Legatum fellows are trying to connect technology and medicine in India: Arjun Nair, who wants to create electronic medical records for India’s poor, and Murali Govindaswamy, who aims to increase forms of data-sharing over rural Internet networks.

Read more: