India’s digital health programme has hit a milestone that few countries can match. The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission has crossed 90 crore Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts. That is more than two-thirds of India’s population of approximately 1.4 billion holding a unique digital health identity. Few, if any, other countries have built a health ID system…
The International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, has released the fact sheets of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2023–24, for the sixth round of India’s largest and most widely used health and demographic survey. The findings come nearly five years after NFHS-5 (2019–21), at a time when reducing child malnutrition remains a key…
India’s public health landscape is experiencing a notable demographic shift. The latest Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report from the Registrar General of India shows that the country’s Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has dropped to 24 deaths per 1,000 live births. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has also fallen to 1.9, below the replacement level…
After COVID-19 gripped the world in 2020, health systems, governments and international institutions everywhere vowed we’d ‘never be unprepared again’. Yet, the pandemic’s wake revealed crumbling health systems, lax surveillance, misinformation issues, healthcare inequities – and it seems that many of these lessons have not yet been fully grasped in a handful of African nations…
However, India’s dialogue on air pollution is far more developed than a decade ago. Air quality monitors display real-time PM2.5 figures on public websites. Cities release their respective plans on clean air action. People examine the pollution index before going out. However, amidst all this progress, there has been one particular aspect of the ongoing…
The Scale of the Shift India is in the midst of a demographic transition. Within the next five years, for the first time in human history, the number of Indian women aged 40 -55 years will exceed the number in peak childbearing age of 20-35 years. More adult women will be in a non-reproductive phase…
Here’s what the WRI analysis actually shows. The team reviewed 46 World Bank-financed health projects across low- and middle-income countries and came up with numbers that belong in every health ministry’s budget talks. For a country of 25 million people, putting money into seven areas of climate-health preparedness such as disease surveillance, climate-informed planning, resilient…
Delhi’s waste crisis in Ward 42 highlights how decades of unequal urban planning and poor sanitation continue to impact low-income colonies like Mangolpuri and Sultanpuri. Overflowing dhalaos, weak waste segregation, and failing civic infrastructure have turned a sanitation issue into a major public health and social development concern. When Delhi’s MCD staff visited Ward 42 in Rohini Zone on…
India’s NCD programmes, especially NPCDCS, remain largely gender-neutral, failing to address women’s unique health risks and barriers. A gender-responsive, life-course approach is essential to improve early detection, access, and outcomes for women. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are responsible for nearly 74% of deaths globally, with India experiencing a rapidly rising burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), diabetes,…
Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty transformed heart surgery into an affordable reality, challenging the idea that life-saving care is only for the rich. Through innovation and compassion, he built systems that made quality healthcare accessible to millions. Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty not only built hospitals. He rewrote the belief, saving a life was a privilege only…
