Merit, privilege & public health/policy

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Over the past several years, watching raging social media debates and the shaping of merit in public discourse in India spurred this editorial on merit in public health/policy that appeared in BMJ Global Health as an editorial on August 6, 2021. Many thanks to Seye Abimbola, the journal’s Editor-in-Chief for his comments. As noted in the acknowledgements, a lot of internal reflection and churning from various life events, many of them not necessarily pleasant have shaped this editorial.

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Health sells, but who’s buying?

Based on an invited article written for RGNUL Student Research Review Vol 6, Issue 1 titled Healthcare in India: Tracing the contours of a transitioning regime



Pandemic plausibilities at landscape level: case of High Asia

An invitation to join a bunch of ecologists who’re working in High Asia led to this perspective piece that traces plausibility of spillovers turning into pandemics in what is considered relatively low-risk (a literal “coldspot”) for zoonotic disease oubreaks due to its relatively sparse populations and large and unihabitable landscapes. However, as we argue rapid land-use change, macroeconomic (even geopolitical!) pressures could create new niches and open up vulnerabilities for spillover events.

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An intersectional analysis of malnutrition in India

With two wonderful colleagues from our Institute’s health equity cluster, we recently published an article in the International Journal of Equity & Health. The study reports the results of an analysis of inequities in child malnutrition across intersectional population sub-groups. Further, we also used a more comprehensive population-level indicator of malnutrition than what is typically used: occurrence of stunting, wasting, and/or underweight. The work was conceptualized largely by Sabu while the data analysis was heavily supported by Yogish, both early-career researchers at the health equity cluster.

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Building health policy and systems research capacity in India: the KEYSTONE approach

The last few decades have seen a proliferation of research in the domain of health policy and systems research (HPSR). Major technological advances in medicine and various healthcare innovations have little chances of succeeding if robust country, provincial and local health systems are lacking. Continue reading