In India you require a license for majority of things, including liquor shops, beauty parlours, pan beeda shops (petty shop usually selling cigarettes, chewable tobacco, paan and candies), handcart pullers and restaurants. Believe it or not, you do not require a license to run a hospital or diagnostic laboratory. This is not without consequence....

This is a longer version of the article that first appeared in the south Indian daily, Deccan Herald on May 26, 2015.     It is now a year since a new Government has been sworn. The hunger for change, the restlessness of the youth and the oratorical skills of Sri Narendra Modi paid electoral dividends for the BJP and today the Government will b...

The latest Indian budget (2015) announcement regarding the creation of six additional national-level institutes of excellence, the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has resulted in heated debate. One of the issues being raised is regarding the wisdom of investing in super-specialty institutions at a time when the overall budget fo...

The public policy scenario in India has moved from a program mode to a “mission” mode. In the field of health, the year 2005 marked the beginning of this shift with the launch of the National Rural Health Mission. This is followed by a spate of related missions including the National Urban Health Mission, National Health Mission, National Nu...

Being recently selected as 1 of 14 youth globally for the Future Leaders Programme at the European Development Days (EDD 15) still feels surreal. One of the highlights of my trip to Belgium thus far has been to attend the event ‘Our World, Our Dignity, Our Future –  The Post 2015 Agenda and the Role of Youth’, an interactive debate between ...

The UN General Assembly in its resolution adopting 21st June as the International Day of Yoga (IDY) recognizes that “yoga provides a holistic approach to health and well-being”.  Yoga, like the Ubuntu and Tao philosophies, believes in oneness of the force linking the self and all creation. The fact that IDY is the first ever resolution to b...

For the past two weeks, as much of the world went about its business unaware, a critical meeting has been held in Geneva regarding the state of the world’s health – the 68th World Health Assembly. This year’s theme was resilient health systems, which when considering the number of complex disasters, humanitarian crises, conflicts, and health...

How do we manage disparity? I’m not talking about the recommendations we make in our reports on the social determinants and how to address healthcare inequality. I’m talking about how we live our lives. Our work is full of accounts of injustice. While there are success stories, policy victories and research breakthroughs, our work is often s...

I’m about to leave Geneva, after my first  ever “immersion” in the World Health Assembly.  The assembly is not even halfway, and so I have absolutely no intention of giving key messages so far. But the main reason for being cautious is this one: I agree wholeheartedly with the assessment given to me by a senior Swiss lady who has been fo...