• Various aspects of universal health care 
• Issues related to health service delivery
• Understanding public health challenges using the lens of SDH
• Health and nutritional status of tribal populations
• Social determinants of health
• Issues concerning financing of health services including health insurance
• Health policies, health sector reforms 
• Economic costs of communicable and non-communicable diseases
• Inequities in health and health care
• Access to medicine

Latest Publications

• The Health Care System in India, Social Policy Country Briefs, University of Bremen, Series Volume 49, 2025, doi: 10.26092/elib/3705 Read

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• Tracking Missing Deaths: An Exploratory Study on the Mortality Impact of COVID-19 in Kozhikode City, India. Indian Journal of Public Health 68(2):p 227-232, Apr–Jun 2024. | DOI: 10.4103/ijph.ijph_1333_23 Read

• Reducing infant and child mortality: assessing the social inclusiveness of child health care policies and programmes in three states of India, BMC Public Health, 23 (1149), 2023 Read

• Improving access to medicines by popularising generics: a study of ‘India’s People’s Medicine’ scheme in two districts of Maharashtra, BMC Health Services Research, 22 (1), 2022  Read

• Social and Regional Disparities in Utilization of Maternal and Child Healthcare Services in India: A Study of the Post-National Health Mission Period, Front. Pediatr, June 2022

• Prevalence and associated risk factors of hypertension among persons aged 15–49 in India: a cross-sectional study, BMJ Open, vol. 9 (2), 2019 Read

• Undernutrition among tribal children in Palghar district, Maharashtra, India, PLOS One, vol 14(2), 2019 Read..

• Targeting and effects of India’s RSBY on access to care and financial protection" Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 52, Issue No.4, 2017 Read..

• Understanding the “cash-less” nature of Government-sponsored health insurance schemes: evidence from Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Aarogya Yojana in Mumbai, Sage Open, Read...

• Socioeconomic Patterns in Inpatient Care Utilisation: Is the Income Effect Withering? Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, vol.9(1), 2015 Read...

• Publicly Financed Health Insurance for the Poor: Understanding RSBY in Maharashtra. Economic and Political Weekly, November 1, 2014.  Read..

• Monitoring and Evaluating Progress towards Universal Health Coverage in India. PLOS Medicine Read...

• Trends and Differentials in Health Care Utilization Pattern in India. Journal of Health Management (SAGE), 16(3), 2014 Read..

• Health Sector Reforms and Changes in Prevalence of Untreated Morbidity, Choice of Health Care Providers among the Poor and Rural Population in India, International Journal of Health Policy and Management, vol (2), No. 3, 2014 Read...

• Equity in the Utilization of Healthcare Services in India: Evidence from National Sample Survey, International Journal of Health Policy and Management, vol (2), No. 1 (January 2014). Read...

• Catastrophic payments and impoverishment due to out‐of‐pocket health spending, Economic and Political Weekly, Read...

• Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance Amongst Urban Poor: Evidence from Mumbai Slums, Artha Vijnana, Read...

• Nutritional status of adolescents in agrarian crises affected areas of Maharashtra’, Indian Journal of Community Medicine, vol. 38, no. 3 (July-October, 2013). Read..

• Morbidity, Health Expenditure and Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance amongst the Urban Poor: A Case Study’ Journal of Health Management (SAGE), Issue 13, No 4, 2011. Read...

• Emerging Pattern of Morbidity Prevalence and Hospitalization in West Bengal’, Global Public Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice, vol. 5(3), 2010. Read...

• User‐fees in India’s Health Sector: Can the Poor Hope for any Respite?’, Artha Vijnana, vol.51(2), June 2009. Read...

• Morbidity in India: Trends, Patterns and Determinants’, Journal of Health Studies, vol. 2(3), June 2009. JHS-ISSN-0974-6765. Read..

Chapters in Books

• Social Health Protection in LMIC: Maharashtra Case Study Summary, Towards equitable coverage and more inclusive social protection in health. Studies in Health Services Organisation and Policy (SHSOP), 32. ITG Press, Antwerp, Belgium. ISBN 9789076070438, 2014. Read

• Social exclusion and its effect on enrolment in Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana in Maharashtra, India with P Maldovsky, Towards equitable coverage and more inclusive social protection in health. Studies in Health Services Organisation and Policy (SHSOP), 32. ITG Press, Antwerp, Belgium. ISBN 9789076070438, Oct 2014. Read...

Working Papers

• Catastrophic Payments and Impoverishment Due to Out‐of‐Pocket Health Spending: The Effects of Recent Health Sector Reforms in India', Asia Health Policy Program Working Paper No. 15., (July 01, 2010), Stanford University, Read...

Commentary

• Pandemic lessons from India: inappropriate prioritization for vaccination, The British Medical Journal, June 9, 2021

• Publicly Financed Health Insurance Schemes, Economic and Political Weekly, June 9, 2018, Read 

• Role of Government in Funded Health Insurance Schemes, Economic and Political Weekly, June 22, 2018, Read..

Other publications

1. "Children as Agents of Change: A Study on School Sanitation and Hygiene Education in Gaya District", UNICEF, November 2006. Read...

Popular Press/Policy Writing

• India’s pandemic toll remains elusive: Even comprehensive datasets such as CRS may fall short in reflecting the full impact of the pandemic, The Hindu, August 5, 2025, Read

• More funds for Ayushman Bharat won’t help those who need the scheme the most, Indian Express, February 6, 2025, Read

• Five years of Narendra Modi’s Ayushman Bharat: A report card, a reality check, Indian Express, September 15, 2023, Read

• Though tax revenues have risen the Modi government's budget has neglected healthcare, scroll.in, 3rd February 2022 Read

• India's vaccine policy has left those most at risk exposed to the third-wave, Scroll, 6th January 2022 Read

• The holes in the vaccine policy, The Telegraph, 6th June 2021 Read...

• Reforming medical education, The Hindu, 14th May 2021 Read..

• কেন্দ্রীয় সরকারের ভুল নীতিই Covid টিকা পাওয়ায় বড় বাধা, Uttarbanga Sambad, 10th May 2021 Read...

• West Bengal Outperforms Gujarat in Social Development, The Citizen, 22nd April 2021 Read...

• India's Medical Education Crisis: What we need vs what we have, the quint, 27th March 2021 Read

• Prolonged Hunger Will Destroy Lives and Minds of Millions, The Citizen, 25th May 2020 Read..

• In a Health Crisis, the Most Vulnerable Cannot Be Left to Fend for Themselves, The Wire, 5th May 2020 Read...

• As the pandemic accelerates, how equipped Is India's healthcare system? The Wire, 31st March 2020 Read...

• The price of a good cuppa, The Hindu, 18th July 2019 Read..

• Muzaffarpur Child Deaths: Bihar Needs to Make Health A Political Priority, The Wire, 26th June 2019 Read

• A Doctor's Strike Was Inevitable in West Bengal's Broken Health System, The Wire, 17th June 2019 Read

• It's time to have universal Healthcare as a public service and a right, The Wire, 2nd May 2019 Read 

• Moving away from 1%, The Hindu, January 24, 2019 Read..

• West Bengal's striking tea plantation workers are only demanding their basic rights, The Wire, August 12, 2018 Read...

• An unequal platter, The Hindu, June 26, 2018 Read...

• Not a prescription for the poor, The Hindu, February 17, 2018 Read..

• Indicators that matter on the quality of public healthcare", The Hindu, September 9, 2017 Read...

• National Health Policy must not push privatization of healthcare in India, Hindustan Times, September 14, 2017 Read..

 Research in Media

• https://theprobe.in/stories/jan-aushadhis-uphill-battle-corruption-unethical-practices-and-private-pharma-invasion/ Watch

• There is a need to relook at India’s vaccine policy and there should be 100% centralized procurement of vaccines: Dr. Soumitra Ghosh, Associate Professor TISS & Public Health Researcher, tells Padmaja Joshi on @thenewshour AGENDA.  Watch

• https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/despite-5l-govt-cover-heart-patient-relies-on-charity-for-op/articleshow/120858270.cms

• https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/generic-medicine-access-one-janaushadhi-kendra-per-1-71-lakh-residents-in-state-8913862/

• Stockouts of drugs for 3-6 months at Jan Aushadhi stores in (May 15, 2022) Read more atToI (Times of India)

• India is inappropriately prioritising people for covid-19 vaccination (The Hindu Businessline June 10 2021)

• BP incidence high in Telangana across ages (The Hindu Businessline 20th Jan 2020)

• Hypertension major risk factor that fuels NCDs in Telangana: Study (Telengana Today, 16th Jan' 20)

• Hypertension in maharashtra rural areas higher than in cities (Times of India 19th Dec 2019)

• TISS study: Sikkim has maximum hypertension cases, Kerala lowest (Indian Express 18th Dec 2019)

• Kerala's rural folk has more hypertension (newindianexpress 19th Dec 2019)

• TISS study in palghar on children under six yrs 59% children stunted, 53% underweight (Indian Express 1st March 2019)

• More than half of children in Vikramgad kids are stunted: study (The Hindu 1st March 2019)

• Amid din of elections, tribals in malnourished belt stay forgotten (Times of India11th April 2019)
• Dissecting 'Modicare' (EPW October 20, 2018)

• Modicare has a long haul ahead of it (Livemint, September 24, 2018)

• Health insurance policy is not cost-effective" says researcher (Hindustan Times, June 28, 2018) 

• Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana: Even as state brings national health insurance scheme, it needs to tackle issues in MPJAY (Indian Express. March 7, 2018)

• Maharashtra budget health sector requires more funding say activists (Indian Express March 13, 2018)

• Modicare will find it tough to get out of the blocks. (livemint, Februrary 2018) 

• Government’s health insurance scheme is a complete failure, finds study (Hindustan Times, June 2017)

• Government to come up with a universal health insurance soon (moneycontrol.com, September 2017)

• Why the Indian patient is caught between a devil and deep sea? (livemint.com, September 2017)

• Number of hospitalisations rises by 175 times in 8 years: CM Yogi Adityanath (Times of India, Nov 2017)

• Health For All Demands Integrated Planning And Prioritisation (BUSINESSWORLD, Oct 2016)

• Is health insurance another “jumla”? (Frontline, April 2016) 

• Despite state-run mediclaim, 60% forced to pay cash (Business Standard, November 2015)

• Health scheme beneficiaries pay from own pockets (Indian Express, November, 2015)

• The growing burden of healthcare costs (livemint.com, August 2015)

• https://www.expresshealthcare.in/news/there-is-hardly-any-country-in-the-world-which-relied-on-commercial-insurance-companies-for-implementation-of-uhc/182877/

• The economic case of universal healthcare (livemint.com, Jan 2015)

• Universal healthcare: How Narendra-Modi can score a big win over UPA (firstpost, 2014)
• Inside the AIIMS ecosystem (livemint, 2015)

Current research project:

Principal Investigator for the ICSSR funded project entitled "Universal health care through coverage for all: The case of Maharashtra’s tax financed Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana" from September 2023

Completed research projects:

Principal Investigator for the WHO sponsored project titled "Assessment of Economic Costs of Diet related NCDs", 2017-2018

Co-Principal Investigator for the USAID funded project titled "Strengthening Eco-systems for Sustainable and Inclusive Health Financing", 2015-2017

Co-Principal Investigator for the European Commission funded FP7 project titled 'Socially Inclusive Health Care Financing in West Africa and India', 2011-2014 (for details, see http://www.healthinc.eu/)

Co-Principal Investigator for the institute funded project titled “User-fee in health sector in Maharashtra” from 2009-11.

Summer Intern for the UNICEF Global Summer Internship Program 2005. Worked in a team comprising of students from India, USA and Japan for two and half months, doing impact assessment for UNICEF SSHE project in Bihar. Published a Case Study for UNICEF 'Knowledge Community on Children in India' Initiative.

• Basic economics and health Economics
• Health Financing
• Health Insurance
• Applied Health Economics and Financing
• Economic Evaluation in Health Care