In Conversation with Ms. Arti Ahuja and Dr. Nandita Bhan

November 2026

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health India Research Center is excited to host the third session of Changemakers in Conversation: Harvard India Alumni Series, a platform that brings together distinguished alumni to discuss the ideas, evidence, and experiences shaping public health in India today.

On November 17, 2026, the third session will feature Ms. Arti Ahuja, IAS, (MPH 2008), Former Secretary, Government of India, drawing on over three decades of leadership across public policy, health systems, social protection and labour policy.

In this session on “Strengthening Public Health in India: Leadership, Governance, and Health Systems Reform,” Ms. Ahuja will reflect on her professional journey, her experience at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and lessons learned from leading institutional reforms in India. The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Nandita Bhan, (ScD 2013), Professor and Vice Dean (Academic Affairs), Jindal School of Public Health (JSPH), O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU).

Join us to hear her firsthand perspectives on the opportunities, challenges and lessons learned from leading reforms and strengthening public systems in India.

Meet the Speakers

Ms. Arti Ahuja is a senior public policy and public affairs leader with over three decades of experience in government service, health systems, social protection, and labor policy. An Indian Administrative Service officer (1990–2024), she has held senior central and state government posts including Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment; Secretary, Chemicals & Petrochemicals; Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; and multiple principal secretary roles in Odisha. Ms. Ahuja has led large system reforms spanning healthcare, nutrition, social security and disaster response, and chaired the Employment Working Group during India’s G20 presidency. She was a faculty at LBSNAA Mussoorie in two spells and continues to engage in training senior civil servants on the issues of social sector, behavioral economics etc.

Currently Ms. Ahuja serves as NHRC’s Special Monitor for Business and Human Rights and sits on advisory and steering bodies across the public-health, gender, climate, nutrition and digital-inclusion spaces. She also advises international organizations, and contributes as contributor, editor and faculty for academic and public policy programs. Ms. Ahuja’s government career highlights include instituting major initiatives for India’s unorganized workers, leading pandemic response and public-health policy during COVID-19, negotiating labor and social-security commitments at ILO and G20, and reforming child nutrition and welfare programs in Odisha. She also led the emergency health response to the 1999 Super Cyclone in Odisha and has been recognized for systems-level improvements in service delivery and transparency.

Ms. Ahuja has represented India at global fora (World Bank/IMF spring meetings, World Economic Forum India Summit, EROPA), served as a member of the Independent Expert Group for the Global Nutrition Report, and held visiting and honorary research roles such as Senior Honorary Research Associate at UCL’s Institute for Global Health. She chairs juries for FICCI awards in areas including industrial parks, chemicals & petrochemicals, and women’s empowerment. Ms. Ahuja’s scholarly work spans health systems, nutrition and social policy; selected publications include contributions to Social Science & Medicine, the Global Nutrition Report, WHO Bulletin, The Lancet, BMJ, Economic & Political Weekly and edited volumes on nutrition (Routledge / ISB Hyderabad). She is also a frequent peer reviewer and op-ed contributor.

Dr. Nandita Bhan completed her Doctor of Science (ScD) from the Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2013. She currently works as Professor and Vice Dean (Academic Affairs) at the Jindal School of Public Health (JSPH) at O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU). She is a social epidemiologist by training, with degrees in Public Health and Social and Behavioural Sciences from Harvard University, University College London, and Delhi University. She has previously worked with the Center on Gender Equity and Health (GEH) at UC San Diego and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).

Dr. Bhan’s work uses a life course perspective while focusing on social inequalities, particularly the role of gender equality and the social, behavioral and structural determinants of health and well-being. She has worked on research and capacity-building on gender and sexual and reproductive health for field-based program monitoring and evaluation, with a particular interest in issues of adolescent agency and in addressing measurement and data gaps in gender empowerment. Her research and teaching emphasize the use of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to improve the measurement of health and well-being, urbanization, and behavior change interventions in low and middle-income countries.