Taiping, Perak
Subramaniam was born on 1 April 1953 to Sathasivam, an assistant registrar of trade unions. He received his early education at the Penang Free School. He graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1978. Upon graduation from the NUS,Subramaniam immediately returned to Malaysia to serve in the Ministry of Health at the District Hospital in Taiping, Perak. Like so many others who toil in public service, he too did his rounds moving from Taiping, Perak to Tangkak in Johor and then Malacca, where he finally settled into his own private practice in 1985.