Pramod Karan Sethi was born on November 28, 1927, the sixth of eight children of Nihal Karan Sethi (professor of physics in Varanasi) and his wife Maina. His choice of medicine as a career was prompted by his lack of talent for mathematics. He graduated from Sarojini Naidu Medical College in Agra in 1949, and obtained his master of surgery from the same institute in 1952. Proceeding to Britain, he received his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh in 1954.