Born in 1954, Dr. Digpal Dharkar is a post graduate from the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, where he trained for about 8 years. Thereafter, he received 5 international fellowships (in Switzerland, U.K., Netherlands, France and U.S.A.), and was abroad for a couple of years.

In July 1988, he started surgical oncology practice in Indore and till last yar September had performed more than 10,000 surgeries of which 30% were done free.

In 1994, he was awarded a fellowship from the Government of India to visit Russia for training in laser surgery. On French Government invitation, he made several visits to French cancer institutes. The Gandhi Foundation, Belgium invited him as speaker at an international seminar on health care opportunities in India. Dr Dharkar has received the first Padmabhushan Prof S K Mukherjee Award 1999 for dedication and commitment in the field of medicine, pertaining to cancer; as well the Madhya Pradesh Gaurav Award 2002. He was one of five doctors from the Asia Pacific Region to be the recipient of the Asia Pacific Award by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), Geneva, in the year 2002.

In July 2009, the President of India, Her Excellency Smt. Pratibha Patil presented a citation to Dr. Digpal Dharkar at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. This was in recognition of his guidance and support to the Amravati Cancer Foundation which has been developed on the lines of the Indore Cancer Foundation.

He has been associated with the Indore Cancer Foundation as its Honorary Secretary since its inception in December 1988 (www.indorecancerfoundation.org). The Foundation is developing the Indian Institute of Head & Neck Oncology at Indore with national and international participation. He has attended most of nearly 200 village level camps for awareness generation, detection, training and surgery in the rural areas of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, UP, Rajasthan and Gujarat organized by the Foundation. He finds these rural outreach programmes rejuvenating and feels at home in any village in India.

From September last one year Dr Dharkar added 536 more surgical operations to his list of ten thousand, as in individual surgeon. He considers it a privilege to have successfully operated a Jain Sadhvi, aged 94, for breast cancer. Dr Digpal Dharkar was invited to several places in India for community level or academic activity. To name a few; the Shri Bidada Sarvodaya Charitable Trust Bhuj invited him as a visiting doctor courtesy Mr. Peter Bheddah. In February 2011 he Chaired a session on Targeted therapy for head and neck cancers at the 4th Biennial International Conference on head and neck and G I cancers organized by Apollo Cancer Hospitals Hyderabad. The Rotary Foundation invited him to speak on Prevention of Cancers, atthe Rotary District meeting of Rotary District 3040. In March he was invited by the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences Sevagram, Wardha, Maharashtra as a teaching Faculty on National CME on Evidence Based Management of Breast cancer. On August 13th and 14th this year he was invited to be a panel member for the Maharashtra State Association of Radiation Oncologists entitled “Case discussion in head and neck cancers”. A week before his New York trip he was to be in Nagpur as a national member of faculty to speak on Indian Clinical Oncologists national meeting the ICON on challenges of treating oral cancers with submucous fibrosis. Next month, i.e. in October, the Amravati Cancer Foundation has invited him to perform Live Surgical demonstrations of head and neck surgery at a national convention of Maxillofacial surgeons. Incidentally, the Amravati Cancer Foundation which has Her Excelency the President of India as a Patron ;is affiliated to the Indore Cancer Foundation, and Dr. Rajinder Singh Arora, the Surgeon there, has been trained by Dr. Dharkar