CUHA’s insights on health systems, financing, primary care, affordability of medicines and diagnostics, and policy innovations shaping India’s journey towards universal, equitable, and responsive healthcare.
This year’s El Niño is shaping up to be one of the strongest on record, and India sits close to its centre. The India Meteorological Department has already cut its monsoon forecast to 90% of the long-period average, with a 60% probability of a deficient season. It has also flagged above-normal heatwave days across Uttar… Continue reading Weathering the Storm: Why India’s Health Systems Must Brace for a Super El Niño
India entered 2026 carrying a demographic credential it has long sought: a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 1.9, confirmed by both the Sample Registration System 2024 and the National Family Health Survey-6 (NFHS-6, 2023–24), well below the replacement threshold of 2.1. This means the country now has fewer than two children per woman, on average.… Continue reading Fewer but Frailer: Understanding Fertility and Child Nutrition through NFHS-6
Air pollution in India is frequently viewed through an environmental or meteorological lens. It is often characterized by smog-filled winter skylines and hazardous Air Quality Index (AQI) readings. However, this perspective risks obscuring the most critical consequence: it’s devastating impact on human health. To effectively address this crisis, it must be reframed as a leading… Continue reading Breathing Risk: A Health-Centred Approach to India’s Air Pollution Crisis
India’s healthcare discourse has, for good reason, focused on expanding insurance coverage, improving service availability and strengthening health outcomes. One critical dimension remains underexamined: forgone care. Forgone care refers to situations in which individuals who need healthcare delay, avoid or do not seek it at all. This gap between health need and healthcare utilisation is… Continue reading Forgone Care: The Missing Metric in India’s Health System
India is no longer battling only infectious diseases. A muted, more complex crisis is unfolding, one where millions are living not with a single illness, but with several chronic conditions at the same time. Diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory illnesses, and metabolic disorders are ascending sharply across the country, notably after the age of… Continue reading Multimorbidity in India: Why Chronic Care Needs Urgent Reform
Public Service Delivery in India: Are Systems Working for Citizens? India measures public service delivery by outputs: hospitals built, schemes launched, beneficiaries enrolled. But citizens judge the state by their daily experience, not outputs. Yet for citizens, the state is not endured through outputs; it is experienced through processes. The wait at a clinic, the… Continue reading A System That Works: Or One That Makes People Work?
On World Health Day 2026, a case for putting community engagement at the centre of India’s health system. We live in an era blessed by astounding scientific advances, yet their uptake remains uneven in public health systems. Their benefits remain inadequately tapped for advancing population health and treating individuals who fall sick. Evidence-based guidance fails… Continue reading From Coverage to Trust: Rethinking India’s Health System
Cheistha Kochhar Nudge Awards
Celebrating ethical behavioural innovations improving lives across India.
