India, July 21 -- For decades, public health in India and across the globe has largely been the domain of the state - driven by policies, programmes, and top-down interventions. While this approach has enabled major breakthroughs in disease control and population health, taking India's life expectancy from just 35.21 years in 1950 to over 70 years in 2025, the causes of mortality and barriers to good health in New India are very different from those that our public health systems were designed to address.

As the domain of public health expands from addressing communicable diseases and infections through vaccination drives to tackling the problems of lifestyle disorders and taking healthcare services to the last mile, a new public health ...