Dr Lalitha Palle did not always dream of becoming a doctor. But when she arrived at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) as a young medical student, everything clicked – the intricacy of the human body, the fulfillment of easing pain, and the quiet power of doing something that mattered. “It stopped being a subject,” she says. “It became purpose.”
As a radiologist, she saw more than just scans – she saw patterns. Increasingly, her patients were coming in with lifestyle diseases that could have been prevented. Diabetes. Fatty liver. Metabolic struggles. “I was diagnosing problems that were, in many cases, avoidable,” she says. “And I wasn’t exempt – I was facing the same tug-of-war with food, fitness, and sustainability.”
That realization lit a new fire. What if wellness could be built on science and empathy – not restrictions and guilt? That question launched her into entrepreneurship, founding INU Energy, a company focused on sustainable, evidence-based health solutions. Her flagship product – Moderate Sugar Slayer – made headlines after her appearance on Shark Tank India early this year.
“The pitch was more than a business moment. It was about standing up for preventive healthcare – for a new kind of medicine that doesn’t wait for illness to act.” The outcome wasn’t just visibility. It was validation. Patients reached out saying they were now able to eat their favourite foods finally, without having to worry about high post meal glucose spikes, thanks to her product.
The leap from radiology to the boardroom wasn’t easy. “No playbook. No safety net,” she recalls. “But clarity, data, and resilience kept me going.”
At ISB (AMPH Class of 2019), she found the mindset shift she needed. “ISB didn’t just sharpen my business skills. It expanded my lens. It showed me how to build for scale, lead with empathy, and design systems – not just solutions.”
“We don’t need to abandon medicine to change healthcare,” she says. “Sometimes, we just need to look upstream.”
Dr Lalitha Palle is alumni of AMPH Class of 2019. This story part of the series curated on the occasion of Doctors’ Day 2025.