In Conversation with Dr. Swati Piramal and Dr. Ramya Pinnamaneni

Several themes emerged from the discussion, reflecting key lessons for public health practice in India:

From Clinical Practice to Public Health Impact

Dr. Piramal traced her public health journey back to a polio clinic she ran as a young medical student in Parel, Mumbai, in an area endemic for polio among migrant mill workers’ children. A simple incentive scheme, a small gift of cloth for mothers who completed all three vaccine doses, sharply reduced polio incidence in the area, an early experience she described as her first taste of public health impact. This later led her to pursue an MPH at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where training in healthcare communication, epidemiology, and economics shaped her subsequent work in India across the pharmaceutical industry, public policy, and philanthropy.

Building Public-Private Partnerships at Scale

Dr. Piramal described the Piramal Foundation’s work in health, education, and water- priorities she identified as central to India’s development, through partnerships with state governments in Rajasthan and Bihar and across 112 aspirational districts. These partnerships have supported digital health record systems, training for frontline health workers, and measurable improvements in literacy and learning outcomes. Reflecting on this work, she emphasized that the key to achieving impact at scale is working closely with the government rather than independently of it, and described philanthropy as a catalyst that can help successful pilot projects scale across districts and states.

Technology and AI in Public Health

Dr. Piramal reflected on her early experience building satellite-based communication networks in India before the advent of the internet, and connected this to her current view of artificial intelligence as a tool for accelerating drug discovery and improving health communication. At the same time, she raised concerns about the speed at which health misinformation may spread and pointed to the growing importance of universities as trusted sources of credible information in an AI-driven media environment.

Cultivating the Next Generation of Leaders

Dr. Piramal spoke about the Piramal Foundation’s programs, including the Gandhi Fellowship, which has trained more than 4,000 young people to work within public systems, and the Karuna Fellowship, which builds digital and financial literacy skills among disadvantaged women across 15 states, as efforts to place young people at the center of India’s development. She also discussed the upcoming Piramal School of Leadership in Jaipur, intended to build research and knowledge partnerships around national health priorities. For early-career public health professionals, she stressed the importance of field immersion and compassion training as skills that complement formal academic preparation.

Dr. Piramal’s reflections presented public health not as the work of any single institution, but as a collective effort built through partnership between government, philanthropy, academia, and communities. The conversation highlighted the value of grounding large-scale interventions in local realities, sustaining collaboration with public systems, and preparing the next generation of professionals to carry this work forward.