Dr. Vasantha  Muthuswamy retired as Senior Deputy Director General  and Chief of Division of Basic Medical Sciences, Traditional medicine & Bioethics and Division of Reproductive Health & Nutrition from Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR),Delhi  in 2008  after three decades of service in different capacities.  A post graduate  with Obstetrics and Gynaecology  joined  ICMR  as a Talent  scholar . A WHO Fellow at the Kennedy Institute for Ethics ,Georgetown University, Washington DC, she is   recognised  for bringing out the ICMR’s “Ethical guidelines for biomedical research on human subjects “ in  2000 and  the  revised version “Ethical guidelines for research on human participants” in 2006 .  She also  prepared   Guidance  document for Animal experimentation, Guidelines for Stem cell research and therapy , Guidelines for Safety evaluation of food derived from GE plants  and  Guidelines for Good Clinical laboratory  practices etc.  As  the Founder Secretary of Forum for Ethics Review Committees in Asia Pacific(FERCAP), she  has attended Bioethics and GCP workshops in more than 30 countries .Received Lifetime achievement Award from Indian Society for Clinical Research, National Bioethics Conference  ,  FERCAP  and Yenopoya University. She is currently  President of  FERCI (Forum for Ethics Review Committees in India) .