New Delhi, India

Our Programs

• Environmental, Climate and Urban Health

  Climate change is affecting human lives and health in a variety of ways, threatening the most essential elements for survival and for good health. Vital Strategies India works with policymakers to analyze data, highlight urban/environmental health risks, and advocate for policies on air pollution, heat and lead poisoning. 

   

  Vital Strategies India partnered with India’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on the National Programme for Climate Change and Human Health, integrating health data into air quality dashboards and training health workers on heat and pollution risks. 

   

  In Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, we’ve supported state health departments on climate action plans, heatwave preparedness, and multi-sectoral response coordination for extreme heat and air quality events. 

   

  Our cascade training model equipped medical officers, accredited social health activists (ASHAs), and program officers to educate communities through home visits and outreach. A key output—the Handbook for ASHAs on Air Pollution and Health—is now part of national ASHA induction, training health workers across India.

• Lead Poisoning Prevention

  Lead is a potent neurotoxin that can severely affect the cognitive development and physical health of children and adults, and the economic development of nations. As part of the Lead Poisoning Prevention program, in India, our focus is to lead efforts to understand and address childhood lead poisoning across Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra, in partnership with government, organizations and stakeholders.

   

  In these regions, we have designed population-based surveys to establish baseline blood lead levels and identify key sources of exposure among young children and pregnant women. Tamil Nadu’s surveillance was launched with support from Sri Ramachandra Institute’s Department of Environmental Health Engineering. 

   

  In Maharashtra, through a partnership with the state’s Commissionerate of Health Services, we have built a sustainable system to prevent childhood lead poisoning—strengthening lab capacity, establishing statewide surveillance, and training health workers to identify and treat cases.

• Data Systems and Public Health Intelligence

  Through India’s Data Impact Program in Maharashtra and Mumbai, Vital Strategies has transformed routine data into tools for decision-making. We’ve developed high-impact analytical products—including district health profiles, mortality analyses, and the State Mental Health Report—giving policymakers timely evidence to address inequities and allocate resources effectively. In Mumbai, we helped institutionalize a Data Analytics Unit within the Public Health Department, embedding data-driven planning into routine practice. 

   

  Global adoption of sustainable models for AI innovations across healthcare systems is already underway. In India, we seek to advance our work in the area of safe and ethical adoption of AI in healthcare. In 2026, the organization contributed to SAHI (Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare for India), launched by the government of India, and we will continue to support the implementation framework for SAHI in collaboration with partners and key stakeholders.  

   

  Our digital tools strengthened governance and service delivery: the Dilaasa dashboard, monitoring hospital-based centers for survivors of gender-based violence in Mumbai; the Nursing Home Registration Portal; and the Amchi Mulgi grievance redressal system in Maharashtra.

   

  We have also built government capacity to use data effectively. Through the Data-to-Policy (D2P) Program, officials have authored eight policy briefs shaping state action on issues such as rabies prevention and pregnancy-induced hypertension. With IIHMR Delhi, we’ve built gender data analysis capacity across four states, helping teams apply a gender lens to policy. 

   

  Together, these efforts are institutionalizing evidence-informed decision-making—for stronger health systems and better outcomes. 

   

  Partners: Directorate of Health Services, Maharashtra; Public Health Department, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation 

• Road Safety

  Our robust road safety program enables us to design and implement best-practice interventions that prevent road crashes, injuries and deaths. Guided by the Safe System approach, which treats road safety as a shared responsibility across infrastructure and policy rather than relying on individual behavior alone. We serve as the main liaison between multiple global partners and governments to align efforts in enforcement, communication and surveillance. In India, we support state governments including Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka to reduce traffic fatalities, injuries and death by strengthening road crash surveillance systems, capacity building and strategic communication.

  Partners:

  • Department of Transport in Maharashtra, National Capital Territory of Delhi, Karnataka and Pune District. 

  • Department of Police in Maharashtra, National Capital Territory of Delhi, Karnataka and Pune District. 

  • Public Works Department of National Capital Territory of Delhi, and municipal corporations in Mumbai (Maharashtra), Bengaluru (Karnataka) and Pune.  

  • National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru 

  • Central Road Research Institute, Delhi 
• NCD Prevention and Control

  Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) cause 80% of deaths worldwide—and with over half the world’s population now living in cities, urban centers are uniquely positioned to lead the fight against them. Through the Partnership for Healthy Cities—a global network of over 70 cities preventing injuries and NCDs through evidence-based policy—Vital provides technical assistance, project management, policy expertise and communication support to help cities turn evidence into action. 

   

  In India, two cities anchor this work. In Ahmedabad, Vital Strategies conducted a population-based NCD risk factor survey finding a tobacco use rate of 18% (33.9% of men, 5.6% of women)—giving the city an evidence base to design and target effective interventions. In Bengaluru, Karnataka’s capital, our engagement helped support the state’s comprehensive hookah ban passed in February 2024, ending the sale, consumption and advertising of both tobacco and flavored hookah in bars, lounges, cafes and parlors through the Smoke Free Bengaluru initiative. In Bengaluru we are also using local data to understand how everyday environments affect health and who is most at risk of diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes—insights that are shaping smarter responses, from expanded screenings to neighborhood-level urban health policies. 

   

  Together, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru showcase the Partnership for Healthy Cities model: combining rigorous local data with sustained policy engagement to reduce NCD and injury risk. 

   

  Partners 

  • Government institutions such as the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Education.  

  • State health departments and civil society partners 

  • National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (ICMR) 

  • Medical, academic and technical institutions such as  Tata Memorial Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS).
• Strategic Communication

  We have partnered with the governments of Delhi, Karnataka and Maharashtra on mass media campaigns integrated with strengthened traffic enforcement—work that has earned three Gold Awards at the 2024 International Safety Media Awards. We have also supported Delhi’s 2025 statewide helmet safety campaign and contributed to NIMHANS’ first triangulation study evaluating a mass media speeding campaign in Karnataka. Through this work and strategic media engagement, we continue to shift the narrative from road crashes as inevitable “accidents” to preventable public health tragedies. 

   

  Through evidence-based campaigns, digital innovation and government partnerships we have worked with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and state governments, to design, implement and evaluate campaigns that combine behavioral science, audience research and storytelling. These campaigns are delivered across TV, radio, print, digital and community platforms to shift knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. 

   

  A key innovation is Canary, our AI-powered digital monitoring platform, which tracks online surrogate marketing that identifies emerging industry tactics, and generates evidence to inform policy and enforcement. By integrating communication with data, technology and policy engagement, Vital Strategies helps create an enabling environment for stronger evidence to control disease across India. 

   

  Highlights:  

  • Provided technical support to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in launching the “Main Bhi Sunita” testimonial campaign on the harms of smokeless tobacco.  

  • Published Canary India report spotlighting “Surrogate Marketing and Smokeless Tobacco” 

  • Published Canary Special Report, “Tobacco’s Glamorization Through Bollywood and Sports Sponsorship.”  

  • Developed educational videos on “Dangers Of Electronic Cigarettes” & “Benefits of Quitting” as part of MoHFW’s Tobacco Free Youth Campaign.  

  • Earned International Media Safety Awards for three campaigns: “The High Cost of Speeding: Story of Purushottama, Geethamma and Family,” “Speeding Can Cost a Family Its Future: Story of Narkars,” and “Consequences”

  • Vital-NIMHANS evaluation study for speeding campaign in Karnataka:

  • Bengaluru Rural District Police Road Safety report 2023

  • Ramanagara District Road Safety Report 2023

  • 2024 Maharashtra Road Crash report

  • 2023 Mumbai Road Crash Report

  • Pune City Road Safety Report 2024

  • Pimpri Chinchwad Road Safety Report 2022-2023

  • Pune Rural Road Safety Report 2022-2023