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Innovation, Frugality and Governance: Scaling Trustworthy Health AI in India
Healthcare Feb 06, 2026

Innovation, Frugality and Governance: Scaling Trustworthy Health AI in India

India frames AI as a healthcare ‘force multiplier’ for care gaps via frugal, application-led tools, yet uneven outcomes, bias, and weak oversight show the need for stronger governance and representative data ...

Union Health Budget 2026: A Surprising Disconnect with the Economic Survey
Healthcare Feb 04, 2026

Union Health Budget 2026: A Surprising Disconnect with the Economic Survey

Budget 2026 outlines an ambitious vision for India’s health sector, but modest funding increases, persistent underspending, and muted fiscal action reveal a gap between policy intent and budgetary follow-through ...

‘Talking Heads’, AI, and the New Architecture of Health Misinformation
Healthcare Jan 30, 2026

‘Talking Heads’, AI, and the New Architecture of Health Misinformation

Short-form “talking head” content and AI-driven narratives are driving risk illiteracy by privileging certainty over evidence and exposing gaps in platform governance and public health communication ...

Tariffs, Technology, and the New Geopolitics of Pharmaceutical Trade
Healthcare Jan 28, 2026

Tariffs, Technology, and the New Geopolitics of Pharmaceutical Trade

As tariff threats loom and AI reshapes drug development, pharmaceuticals are increasingly weaponised in global trade, testing transatlantic ties and raising the strategic stakes for India-EU cooperation ...

Strengthening POSHAN Abhiyaan: Priorities for Budget 2026
Healthcare Jan 23, 2026

Strengthening POSHAN Abhiyaan: Priorities for Budget 2026

While POSHAN Abhiyaan reflects India’s stated commitment to nutrition, the Union Budget has yet to align resources, decentralisation, and cross-sectoral financing in ways necessary to protect human capital and long-term growth ...

India’s Health Insurance Boom and the Transparency Deficit
Healthcare Jan 21, 2026

India’s Health Insurance Boom and the Transparency Deficit

India’s fast-expanding health insurance market is delivering record growth, but uneven claims behaviour and limited consumer-facing data are raising fresh questions about trust, transparency, and informed choice ...

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and the Paradox in India’s Tobacco Policy
Healthcare Jan 16, 2026

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and the Paradox in India’s Tobacco Policy

India’s dual approach — discouraging tobacco domestically while promoting it abroad — undermines Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and exports preventable harm ...

Climate-Proofing India’s Health System
Healthcare | Climate Change Jan 14, 2026

Climate-Proofing India’s Health System

As climate risks intensify, India’s future will hinge not only on emissions targets, but on a health system ready for climate shocks ...

Smog on Our Plates: How Air Pollution Strips Food of Nutrition
Healthcare Jan 11, 2026

Smog on Our Plates: How Air Pollution Strips Food of Nutrition

Air pollution doesn’t just choke lungs—it strips crops of nutrients, cuts yields, and quietly turns smog into a food security crisis ...

The Grey Vote May Become India’s Quiet Kingmaker
Healthcare Jan 08, 2026

The Grey Vote May Become India’s Quiet Kingmaker

India’s electorate is ageing unevenly, and in several states, seniors already rival youth on the rolls. Therefore, parties that treat eldercare as delivery, not charity, will gain an edge. ...

Avian Influenza: A One Health Imperative for Global Health Governance
Healthcare Jan 07, 2026

Avian Influenza: A One Health Imperative for Global Health Governance

The global resurgence of avian influenza illustrates how zoonotic threats transcend health sectors, reinforcing the need for an integrated One Health framework in pandemic preparedness and governance ...

Beyond Budgets: Mobilising Private Capital for India’s Health Financing Gap
Healthcare Dec 31, 2025

Beyond Budgets: Mobilising Private Capital for India’s Health Financing Gap

India’s expanding ecosystem of CSR, blended finance, and impact investing presents an opportunity to strengthen health infrastructure, innovation, and service delivery ...

How Ultra-Processed Foods Fuel India’s NCD Burden
Healthcare Dec 26, 2025

How Ultra-Processed Foods Fuel India’s NCD Burden

Ultra-processed foods are accelerating India’s nutrition transition, driving obesity and NCDs while deepening the double burden of malnutrition ...

Air Pollution: When ‘No Conclusive Data’ Becomes the Headline
Healthcare Dec 24, 2025

Air Pollution: When ‘No Conclusive Data’ Becomes the Headline

Recent parliamentary replies on air pollution reveal how the framing of evidence, rather than its absence, can shape public understanding of health risks and weaken risk communication ...

Emerging Fault Lines in Global Health to Guard Against in 2026
Healthcare Dec 19, 2025

Emerging Fault Lines in Global Health to Guard Against in 2026

As 2026 approaches, global health stands at a crossroads, confronting declining vaccine trust, strained multilateralism, and the uneven rise of pharmaceutical solutions to complex public health challenges ...

Rewind 2025: Public Health Issues India Couldn't Stop Talking About
Healthcare Dec 17, 2025

Rewind 2025: Public Health Issues India Couldn't Stop Talking About

A year-end playback of the anxieties and arguments that kept public health at the centre of India’s conversations in 2025. ...

The Oliver Sacks LLM: Hallucinations of a Beautiful Mind
Healthcare Dec 13, 2025

The Oliver Sacks LLM: Hallucinations of a Beautiful Mind

A new investigative essay recasts Oliver Sacks as a cautionary case of how compelling medical narratives can outgrow their evidence while retaining clinical authority ...

New Delhi's Toxic Air Quality: A Public Health Emergency
Healthcare Dec 12, 2025

New Delhi's Toxic Air Quality: A Public Health Emergency

Delhi’s toxic air has become a full-blown public health emergency, with local emissions and trapped winter pollutants driving the worst AQI levels in years ...

India’s Rise as Global Pharmacy Masks Deep Dependence on China
Healthcare Dec 10, 2025

India’s Rise as Global Pharmacy Masks Deep Dependence on China

Behind India’s global export success in generic medicines lies an entrenched reliance on China for critical bulk drugs and intermediates ...

From Entitlements to Equity: Advancing the Right to Food in India
Healthcare Dec 10, 2025

From Entitlements to Equity: Advancing the Right to Food in India

India’s extensive food-security architecture has expanded entitlements nationwide, but achieving true nutritional equity requires tackling exclusion, improving diet diversity, and building resilient, community-centred food systems ...

America First in Global Health: Strategy, Selectivity, and Contradictions
Healthcare Dec 05, 2025

America First in Global Health: Strategy, Selectivity, and Contradictions

The AFGHS illustrates a new era in which US global health engagement is increasingly shaped by commercial incentives, geopolitical calculations, and controlled access to American innovation ...

Health Financing in an Era of Eroding Global Health Solidarity
Healthcare Dec 03, 2025

Health Financing in an Era of Eroding Global Health Solidarity

As external support plateaus and debt burdens rise, sustaining core health entitlements will require governments to expand fiscal capacity, rethink spending priorities, and build political coalitions for reform ...

Drugs and HIV in India’s Northeast: An Uneven Epidemic
Healthcare Dec 01, 2025

Drugs and HIV in India’s Northeast: An Uneven Epidemic

Despite falling national HIV averages, drug-fuelled hotspots in India’s Northeast show why border crackdowns must be matched by harm reduction and stronger health systems. ...

Birsa-101: India’s Path Towards Affordable CRISPR Therapies
Healthcare Nov 28, 2025

Birsa-101: India’s Path Towards Affordable CRISPR Therapies

India’s first indigenous CRISPR therapy, Birsa-101, signals a decisive shift toward affordable gene-editing solutions for Sickle-cell Disease ...

Fintech’s Promise for Equitable and Sustainable Food Systems
Healthcare Nov 26, 2025

Fintech’s Promise for Equitable and Sustainable Food Systems

Fintech is reshaping how farmers access credit, manage risk, and connect to markets, enabling a more inclusive and sustainable food future ...

Dentistry in India: Oversupply and Gender Bias Shaping Oral Health Workforce
Healthcare Nov 21, 2025

Dentistry in India: Oversupply and Gender Bias Shaping Oral Health Workforce

India’s dental sector is struggling with dentist oversupply and limited job opportunities, while the feminisation in the field reveals persistent gender bias and unequal career opportunities ...

Contributors

Manish Vaidya

Manish Vaidya

Manish Vaidya is a Research Assistant with ORF’s Centre for New Economic Diplomacy.  His work centres on research and active engagement in applied economics, with a focus on development issues, migration policy, empirical macroeconomics, and emerging spaces in geoeconomics. His approach ...

Read More + Manish Vaidya

Manish Vaidya

Manish Vaidya is a Research Assistant with ORF’s Centre for New Economic Diplomacy.  His work centres on research and active engagement in applied economics, with a focus on development issues, migration policy, empirical macroeconomics, and emerging spaces in geoeconomics. His approach ...

Read More +