Dr .V. Franklin founder of Shin Shiva hails from a family that was engaged in Ayurvedic treatment for over 400 years. Aside from this hereditary background, Dr. Franklin is an academically qualified physician, holding a bachelors degree from the University of Kerala and Post Graduate Diploma in physical medicine and rehabilitation from the Bombay University. He joined Government service and retired as District Medical Officer, in the Ayurvedic system of medicines. Post retirement he worked as physiotherapist for the Qatar based Rayyan Foot Ball team, where he won the appreciation of players and coaches of the Brazilian and English football teams as well.

Back home in Kerala, he started an Ayurvedic treatment centre for foreigners in Neptune Hotel, Kovalam in 1988. He was the first to initiate the concept of Ayurvedic tourism. In 1997 he founded Dr. Franklin’s Panchakarma Institute and Research Centre, which is thronged by patients from Europe every year. Dr. Franklin travels abroad every year with a team of professional masseurs providing treatments in countries like Chile, Georgia and Germany, and in places like Lugarno (Switzerland), Milan, Florence and Turin (Italy), and Warsaw (Poland) and popularizing Ayurveda as a highly effective alternative method of treatment.

In recognition of his services he was awarded the Tourism Man of the Year Award in 1999, and the Kerala Sahridayavedi award in 2005 for the best Ayurveda Doctor in Tourism. Dr. Franklin’s Panchakarma Institute and Research Centre was awarded the “OLIVE LEAF” Classification by the Tourism Department, Govt. of Kerala. Dr. Franklin also heads Shin Shiva Ayurvedasram which he founded in 2003. Commanding a panoramic view of the Arabian Sea, Shin Shiva has excellent accommodation facilities and offers the entire gamut of Ayurvedic treatments.