Research and Evidence Generation
Generate, review and translate evidence to build a stronger understanding of preventive health, support better decision-making, and identify opportunities for earlier action.
Shaping the future of public health in India through prevention.
As India confronts a growing burden of chronic disease, a new question comes into focus: how many years of life can be lived in good health? The widening gap between lifespan and healthspan calls for a shift beyond treating illness towards preserving health across the life course.
We seek to bring together science, policy and public action to explore what it could take for Indians to live not only longer, but healthier. By strengthening evidence, advancing prevention and enabling early action, we hope to help shape a future where more years of life are lived in good health.
The potential for adding more healthy years.
10years
The gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in India.
Need for Action
Why Act
India's health challenge is not just how long we live, but how well we live.
India's life expectancy is approximately 10 years higher than healthy life expectancy, with a significant share of years lived affected by morbidity. With nearly 63% of deaths attributed to noncommunicable diseases, there is an opportunity to rethink prevention at scale and place greater emphasis on identifying risk early, preserving health, and reducing the burden of disease.
Why Now
The window for prevention is widest before risk takes hold.
Health risks accumulate over time, making the timing of preventive action critical. As risks become established, the scope for prevention may narrow, and interventions can become more complex, resource-intensive, and costly. With non-communicable diseases accounting for an increasing share of India's disease burden, there is an opportunity to strengthen evidence and enable earlier, sustained preventive action across the life course, before risks become entrenched.
The India Healthspan Project aspires to be a leading platform for advancing healthspan as a central objective of preventive health in India.
The Project is envisioned as a platform to generate and translate India-specific evidence, connect researchers, policymakers, and institutions, and advance conversations around prevention across the life course. Through these efforts, it seeks to strengthen prevention and enable earlier action towards healthier lives across India.
Our Approach
We believe four preventive pathways can anchor the transformation towards preventive healthcare.
Transforming healthcare towards prevention in India
- 01
Early risk identification
Detecting modifiable risk before it accumulates into disease.
- 02
Behavioural risk reduction
Shifting everyday behaviour towards healthier choices at population scale.
- 03
Timely clinical intervention
Acting while intervention remains low-cost and effective.
- 04
Environmental determinants
Preventing disease by addressing environmental conditions that contribute to health risks.
Our Vision
To increase the years of life lived in good health across generations.
TIHP seeks to establish healthspan as a foundational objective of India's public health system, shifting greater focus towards prevention and the preservation of health across the life course. It seeks to strengthen India's capacity to generate evidence, translate it into practice and support earlier action on modifiable risks. With particular attention to youth, TIHP considers opportunities to shape healthier trajectories not only for the current generation, but for generations to come.
Theory of Change
If
India-specific evidence on preventive health can be strengthened, translated into policy and practice, and complemented by efforts to support preventive behaviours where health trajectories may be more modifiable;
Then
this could create greater scope for earlier adoption and more consistent implementation of preventive interventions, with potential implications for the long-term burden of chronic disease and years lived in good health;
Because
an important challenge lies in translating evidence on prevention into timely and sustained action, before modifiable risks become more difficult to address.
Our Principles
01 / 05
- 01
Evidence Before Advocacy
Research, policy advice and public communication should be grounded in rigorous evidence, generated or validated in the Indian context wherever possible.
- 02
Prevention Across the Life Course
Prevention must be prioritised across the life course, with particular attention to children and adolescents, when health behaviours and trajectories are more amenable to change.
- 03
Early Action Creates Long-Term Value
Prevention should consider not only what interventions are delivered, but when they are delivered, with action on risk beginning before disease becomes established.
- 04
Integrated Translation
Research, policy and public communication should function as an integrated pathway, with evidence informing policy and implementation, and communication supporting public understanding.
- 05
Scientific Integrity and Transparency
Evidence should be communicated accurately and transparently, with findings, uncertainties and limitations clearly presented.
Our Areas of Work
Policy and Government Partnership
Work with governments, public institutions and other relevant bodies to translate evidence into policy and practice, support policy development and implementation, and strengthen the capacity to advance preventive health.
Public Communication and Behaviour Change
Develop communication campaigns, education initiatives, and behaviour-change interventions that build health literacy and sustained adoption of preventive practice.
Community and Institutional Delivery
Embed preventive health across the institutions and environments that shape everyday life, with particular attention to children, adolescents and young adults, where health behaviours and trajectories may be more amenable to change.
Ecosystem Development
Build collaboration across academia, civil society, philanthropy, healthcare and the private sector to strengthen the preventive health ecosystem, foster knowledge-sharing and partnerships, and advance the broader conversation around healthspan and prevention.
Work Done Till Now
College and School Engagement
TIHP seeks to engage where health behaviours are shaped.
Schools, colleges and universities offer important settings to strengthen health literacy and support preventive practices. TIHP seeks to work with these institutions to explore how prevention can become part of everyday environments, particularly before health risks become more established.
Publications
Building the evidence base for preventive health.
TIHP will share research, reports and opinion briefs on policies as they are developed and published.
Research
Coming soon
Reports
Coming soon
Notes
Coming soon
Transform India's health with us.
For government partners, philanthropic funders, and researchers working on India's preventive health ecosystem.