India Research Center
The India Research Center, based in Mumbai, serves as a hub for Harvard Chan School’s research projects, educational programs, and knowledge translation and communication work across India.
Dextrus, 6th floor,
Peninsula Towers,
Peninsula Corporate Park,
Lower Parel, Mumbai 400013
India
Welcome
What We Do
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has had active research and educational programs in India since the 1960s. However, the Mumbai-based India Research Center, an office of Harvard Global Research Support Centre India, is designed to broaden and coordinate the School’s existing collaborations and create new relationships with organizations and agencies across India. The ultimate goal is to improve health in India and around the world through the strategic goals of research, training, and knowledge translation and communication.
Center researchers are engaged in a number of diverse projects, developing cases for the School’s DrPH program, convening workshops and symposiums on important public health topics, supporting faculty and researchers at Harvard Chan School, among many others.
We invite you to explore the India Research Center website and learn about our projects and collaborators.
Improving Health in India
As the world’s second-most-populous country and one of its fastest-growing economies, India faces both unique challenges and unprecedented opportunities in the sphere of public health.
For more than a decade, India has experienced record-breaking economic growth that has been accompanied by significant reductions in poverty. According to the World Bank, infant mortality in India fell from 66 to 38 per 1,000 live births from 2000 to 2015. Life expectancy at birth has increased from 63 to 68 years, and the maternal mortality ratio has fallen from 374 to 174 per 100,000 live births over the same period.
India also has dynamic pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries; world-class scientists, including a burgeoning clinical trials industry; and leading hospitals that attract foreign patients and treat its better-off citizens.
Yet Indian government and public health officials agree that the country also faces persistent and daunting public health challenges, particularly for the poor. These include child undernutrition and low birth weights that often lead to premature death or lifelong health problems; high rates of neonatal and maternal mortality; growth in noncommunicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and tobacco use, leading to cancer and other diseases; and high rates of road traffic accidents that result in injuries and deaths.
As the Indian government strives to provide comprehensive health coverage for all, the country’s rapidly developing health system remains an area of concern. There are disparities in health and health care systems between poorer and richer states and underfunded health care systems that in many cases are inefficiently run and underregulated. New government-financed health insurance programs are increasing coverage, but insurance remains limited.
Public and private health systems are placing huge demands on the country’s capacity to train exceptional health leaders and professionals. Rising to meet these challenges, the people of India have an opportunity to have a major influence on their own future health and on the future of public health and medical efforts globally.
Supporting Development of India’s Health Workforce
Harvard Chan School is collaborating with partners across India to address those challenges. Together, the School and its partners are introducing educational innovations to India to expand skills training, degree programs, and leadership development at new schools and institutes of public health. We seek to leverage the School’s resources to help strengthen public health training and build capacity across the health sector in India.