For more than five decades, India has built a pharmaceutical ecosystem founded on a simple but powerful principle: reward genuine innovation but ensure that life-saving medicines become affordable. This balance has enabled India to well serve its own people while earning the reputation of being the pharmacy of the world. That carefully crafted balance is […]

There is an inherent dichotomy in Indian healthcare. On the one hand, accessible, affordable, quality healthcare continues to elude many; on the other, a roll call of India’s tallest business leaders will inevitably feature a large number of health-sector players: hospital and diagnostic chain promoters, C-suite occupants of pharmaceutical behemoths, and celebrity doctors with an […]

The Indian healthcare system is often criticised for inadequate public expenditure, persistent inequities, and excessive dependence on private providers. Comparatively less attention has been paid to healthcare management: the organisation of services, leadership, institutional processes, human resource management, and operational efficiency. In this context, Tilak Shankar’s Management of Healthcare in India: Need for a Paradigm Shift is both […]

India likes to think of itself as a vegetarian nation. The data says otherwise—only one in five Indians identifies as vegetarian. In this episode of Frontline Conversations, public health doctor Sylvia Karpagam, author of The Meat of the Matter, argues that this mismatch is not accidental. Drawing on two decades of work at the intersection […]

Viral infections have long posed a threat to human societies, but advances in public health since the early 20th century have transformed our ability to prevent infection, improving health outcomes and reducing mortality. Vaccination has been central to this progress, eradicating some diseases and bringing many others under control. In India, public-health authorities have strengthened […]

In mid-August, a labourer in a village in Karnataka’s South Bengaluru district chanced upon some discarded medicine vials and some packets containing white powder on his way to the fields. Becoming suspicious about the vials and packets, the labourer informed the local police, which led to raids at a makeshift facility in nearby Bidadi and […]

Portraits of Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel are shown on the screen as they are awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Medicine, as announced during a press conference at the Nobel Forum at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 5, 2026. | Photo Credit: AP Three scientists, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel of […]