A. V. Baliga

After independence, he was involved in the Goa liberation movement. He was also the chief architect of India's political relations with the former Soviet Union. After the 1962 debacle, he also went on an unofficial diplomatic mission to China.

Baliga went to the U.K. on a fellowship. He had to pass the London matriculation for his LRCP, MRCS and finally FRCS. He returned to India in 1933 and was appointed as an assistant honorary surgeon at the KEM Hospital, Bombay; he also started his private practice. From then on until 1964, he rapidly rose in stature as a surgeon both nationally and internationally.

A. V. Baliga FRCS (1904–1964) was a physician, an educationist and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Several institutes in India are named after him.

Baliga was born on 26 April 1904 in Kallianpur. His early education was in the Hindu Higher elementary school in Kallianpur. Since there was no high school in Kallianpur, he joined the Christian High School in Udupi. In 1920, Mahatma Gandhi gave a call to students to leave educational institutions run by the British Raj. Baliga left school, but was not readmitted. He joined the National School in Udupi which was affiliated to the Gujarat Vidyapith, a Nationalist institute. Baliga passed his matriculation from there. Since the matriculation was not recognized by the British authorities, he could not be admitted to the M.B.B.S course. He was forced to join the L.C.P.S course at the National Medical College, Bombay. Baliga also had to finance his education by giving private lessons. He finished his L.C.P.S course by standing first in the examinations; he caught the attention of G. V. Deshmukh of KEM Hospital who appointed him house surgeon and physician.