Manish Chandra: Connecting international patients with trusted healthcare in India and beyond

(Jun 25, 2026) Manish Chandra co-founded Vaidam Health which has evolved into a leading medical travel assistance and healthcare facilitation platforms, helping international patients access trusted, high-quality, and affordable healthcare across India and other major treatment destinations. Headquartered in Gurugram, the company serves patients from more than 125 countries and has built a strong international presence across Africa, the Middle East, CIS countries, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

The story of Vaidam begins with Manish Chandra’s friendship with his co-founder, Pankaj Chandna, both batchmates at IIM Lucknow. Over time, they realized that healthcare and technology represented a unique opportunity.

“Whenever families face serious medical decisions, they rely heavily on recommendations from friends and relatives. There was no trusted platform helping patients navigate these decisions in a structured manner,” Manish reflects in a chat with The Global Indian. At the same time, internet adoption was accelerating, and people were increasingly searching online for healthcare information. They knew technology could bridge this gap.

Manish Chandra and Pankaj Chandna, Co-founders of Vaidam Health

Building trust from the ground up

Vaidam was built as a bootstrapped venture with a strong focus on execution, operational excellence, and long-term trust building within the healthcare ecosystem.

During their research, Vaidam’s co-founders discovered how international patients faced challenges at every stage of their journey — finding the right doctors, selecting hospitals, understanding costs, arranging visas, overcoming language barriers, and coordinating treatment.

Manish says the industry was fragmented and lacked technology-driven solutions.

Coming from technology backgrounds, we believed we could build something different. That belief became the foundation of Vaidam Health.

Manish Chandra

Today, the company is among the first healthcare facilitation platforms in India to receive NABH accreditation. “The early years were all about solving one problem at a time. Many of the solutions we were building simply did not exist in the industry then.”

Whether it was hospitals, doctors, or patients, stakeholders appreciated the transparency and structure Vaidam was bringing to the process. Gradually, trust became the company’s biggest asset.

The meaning behind Vaidam

The name “Vaidam” is inspired by the Sanskrit word Vaidya, which means doctor or healer. “We adapted and modernized the word to create a name that would resonate globally while retaining its Indian roots,” says Manish

Expanding across borders

As founders, both Manish and Pankaj have travelled extensively. While Manish has travelled to more than 30 countries for work, Pankaj has travelled to more than 50 countries. “When you travel for business development and community engagement, you learn much more than what any guidebook can teach you,” smiles the entrepreneur.

His work took him to places like Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Zambia, Turkey, and many other destinations that most people rarely visit. Along the way, he gained a deeper understanding of healthcare challenges, interacted with local families, learned cultural nuances, built friendships, and developed a broader perspective on how communities navigate healthcare systems.

The experiences reinforced one lesson: healthcare challenges are universal, even though the contexts may differ. To date, Vaidam has assisted patients from more than 140 countries worldwide.

Besides India, we help patients access treatment in destinations such as Turkey, Thailand, UAE, Germany, Malaysia, and several other countries.

Manish Chandra

In addition to its India operations, Vaidam has established information centres and country teams across multiple geographies that help patients navigate treatment journeys, organize medical camps, conduct awareness programmes, and build relationships with local communities.

Healthcare, Manish says, is deeply local and highly dependent on language and trust. Over time, the company built a multilingual team capable of supporting patients from diverse backgrounds. “Today, our teams collectively speak 10–15 languages.”Whenever required, they also work with language specialists in different countries.

Great place to work

From a single room in Manish’s apartment, the company moved to a co-working space and then to larger offices as its team expanded. “Today, Vaidam has grown into a team of more than 100 professionals.” The company is now a Great Place to Work-certified organization.

Turning a crisis into an opportunity

Vaidam was about four years old when Covid shut down the world. Manish Chandra and his friend Pankaj Chandna — who had nurtured and ensured the company’s steady growth — suddenly found themselves staring at uncertainty, much like entrepreneurs everywhere.

Rather than viewing the situation as a setback, they treated it as an opportunity to reinvent the business. They invested heavily in strengthening their technology platform, content capabilities, patient engagement systems, and operational processes. Above all, they accelerated digital initiatives that might otherwise have taken years to implement. The well-planned moves helped take Vaidam Health to new heights globally.

COVID was not just a crisis; it was a defining chapter that helped shape the organization we have become.

Manish Chandra

Growing up in Banaras

Banaras, or Varanasi, a city where history, spirituality, culture, and tradition are woven into everyday life, remains central to everything Manish does, professionally and otherwise.

Born in in the holy city, Manish grew up in a mohalla environment, which meant there were always people around, conversations happening, and children playing together. “That environment made me naturally comfortable interacting with people and understanding different perspectives,” says Manish, who attended St. John’s School in Varanasi.

His father worked as a mechanical engineer with Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW), while his mother was a homemaker. He grew up in a traditional joint family surrounded by siblings, cousins, grandparents, and extended family members.

Lessons from a middle-class upbringing

Coming from a middle-class family, Manish realized early that education was perhaps the most reliable path to creating opportunities. His father was a strong influence on him. “Watching him leave for work every morning and return after a long day taught me the importance of discipline, commitment, and hard work.”

Alongside academics, he enjoyed sports, spending time with friends, and participating in extracurricular activities. Manish was particularly interested in mathematics, science, geography, general knowledge, and quizzing. He won several prizes, scholarships, and awards in quiz competitions and general knowledge contests.

Looking back, he says those early years shaped many of the qualities that continue to guide him today — curiosity, resilience, empathy, and the desire to keep learning.

Leadership beyond the classroom

The next major milestone was Delhi College of Engineering (now DTU). “Moving from Varanasi to Delhi was a transformational experience. It exposed me to a larger world, ambitious peers, and opportunities I had never imagined before.”

During his third year, he managed the hostel mess and was responsible for collecting money, planning menus, coordinating suppliers, managing expenses, and paying salaries to staff members. “It was my first practical lesson in operations management, budgeting, accountability, and people management,” he mentions.

Another defining experience came when he served as Chief Coordinator of the college cultural festival in 2000. “Organizing a large event involving hundreds of participants taught me leadership, teamwork, negotiation, execution, and the ability to work under pressure.”

First steps in technology

Manish’s professional journey began with Tech Mahindra in Pune as a software engineer in 2000. His first international exposure came during the early years of his career when he travelled to London on multiple assignments with British Telecom (BT).

He was involved in BT’s e-commerce and e-business initiatives, particularly around consumer-facing services on BT.com. “My role involved understanding business requirements, working closely with client teams in the UK, and coordinating project execution with development teams in India.”

Learning at internet scale

After his four-year stint with Tech Mahindra, Manish joined BroadVision, a pioneering American product company focused on portals and e-commerce solutions. One of the most exciting projects he worked on was the IRCTC e-ticketing platform during its formative years.

“Today, online ticket booking feels routine. But in the early 2000s, it was revolutionary. For the first time, I witnessed internet commerce happening on a large scale in India.”

Global exposure and a broader perspective

While working with Agilent Technologies between 2006 and 2011, Manish travelled frequently between India and Colorado for work-related assignments.

“During the same period, my wife, Radhika Sachdev, was working on a project near Seattle, which allowed me to spend significant time in the US and gain a deeper understanding of its work culture, innovation ecosystem, and business environment.”

Later, from 2017 to 2020, after founding Vaidam Health, he continued travelling to the United States for both personal and professional engagements. “These experiences across the UK and the US broadened my perspective, exposed me to global business ecosystems, and strengthened my belief that world-class companies can be built from India while serving customers across the world.”

Despite several opportunities to work and potentially settle abroad, he chose to return to India.

Discovering business beyond technology

Around this period, Manish spent considerable time with a friend who ran a successful manufacturing and export business. Initially, he helped him informally during weekends and spare time.

He accompanied his friend to factories, supplier meetings, dealer interactions, and customer discussions.“Coming from a technology background, I helped him introduce digital systems and websites into his operations.” The experience gave him valuable exposure to business fundamentals beyond technology.

Entrepreneurship at IIM Lucknow

Eventually, Manish pursued an MBA from IIM Lucknow in 2011–12. Interestingly, his entrepreneurial instincts surfaced there as well. Along with a few friends, he started and managed a cafeteria on campus.

“We raised money ourselves, hired staff, managed inventory, handled procurement, and operated the business.” While many of his classmates were attending lectures, Manish often found himself solving vendor issues, staffing challenges, and operational problems.

“That experience taught me that entrepreneurship is less about ideas and more about execution.” It was also during his time at IIM Lucknow that he met Pankaj, who would later become his co-founder.

Startup lessons at ShopClues

After graduating from IIM Lucknow, Manish joined ShopClues in 2012. At that time, ShopClues was still a young startup with only a handful of employees, and he was among its early team members.

The four years there were among the most exciting and educational years of his career. “As the company was small, I had the opportunity to work across operations, technology, customer support, product management, business processes, and growth initiatives.”

As ShopClues scaled and eventually became a unicorn, Manish gained invaluable exposure to what it takes to build and scale an internet company.

“I learned how startups evolve from small teams into large organizations. I saw how products are built, how processes are designed, how teams scale, and how customer experiences are managed.”

Taking the entrepreneurial leap

In early 2016, Manish left ShopClues. “It was not an easy decision. I had recently been promoted, and professionally things were going very well. Financially too, I was in a comfortable position.”

Yet there was always a voice within that wanted to create something of his own. “One of the key reasons I was able to take that leap was the support of my family,” says Manish, crediting his wife for encouraging him to take the plunge. That is how Vaidam was born.

Why patients trust India

Manish believes Indian doctors are among the most respected in the world.

The combination of medical expertise, clinical outcomes, infrastructure, and affordability makes India a highly attractive healthcare destination.

Manish Chandra

Patients travel to India not only because treatment is affordable but also because they trust Indian doctors and hospitals. As healthcare awareness increases globally and healthcare systems continue evolving, he believes India is uniquely positioned to become one of the world’s leading healthcare destinations.

Embracing artificial intelligence

Coming from a technology background, Manish has always been fascinated by how technology can solve real-world problems. Initially, Vaidam used AI to improve backend operations, patient qualification processes, and communication workflows.

“Today, we are using AI to improve patient engagement, operational efficiency, and service quality.”

Beyond Vaidam itself, Manish and his team are increasingly helping hospitals adopt digital and AI-driven solutions based on their own experience over the years.

Giving back through healthcare

Over the years, the Vaidam team has organised more than 300 medical camps and healthcare awareness initiatives across multiple countries.

“We regularly facilitate free consultations, medical opinions, and access to specialists for patients who may otherwise struggle to obtain quality healthcare guidance.”

Always returning to Banaras

Manish has travelled to more than 30 countries, worked with patients from over 140 nations, and spent the last decade building a global healthcare platform.

Yet some of his most peaceful moments are still in Banaras — watching the river flow, observing life on the ghats, and reflecting on the journey. Whenever he needs to reconnect with himself, Manish returns to Banaras. “I enjoy walking through its ancient lanes, sitting quietly on a boat on the Ganga, or simply watching life unfold on the ghats,” he signs off.

• Follow Manish Chandra on LinkedIn 

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