In 2015, the WHO Alliance for Health Policy & Systems Research and Public Health Foundation of India had partnered to set up India’s first effort at building capacity in health policy & systems research (HPSR) through the KEYSTONE course. Half a decade later, I had the opportunity to join some lovely people from several institutions in India and abroad at launching the India HPSR Fellowship Program, which builds upon the work started off by KEYSTONE and various other small efforts at developing capacity for advancing systems thinking within public health research and a more critical engagement with policy, practice and social determinants of health.