Harvard University’s Public Health School opens new centre in Mumbai

The new facility is expected to be inaugurated on December 20

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has announced the opening of a centre in Mumbai at the Piramal Tower Annexe.

The new centre is the first in South Asia and is being set-up with a contribution by Dr Swati Piramal and Ajay Piramal, two Harvard alumni. The new facility is expected to be inaugurated on December 20. Harvard Business School has had a centre in Mumbai since 2006. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has conducted active research and educational programmes in India since the 1960s, but did not have an established office or centre until now.

David Hunter, Acting Dean, Harvard Chan School said that he sees many opportunities for the two schools to expand interactions with each other, several other businesses and public health organisations as well as state and central governments to improve health in the country and in the South Asia region.

Speaking about the need for collaborative health programmes, Dr Piramal said, “Healthcare has always been a primary area of focus for us. Through our philanthropic arm, Piramal Foundation, we are working towards supporting primary rural healthcare and working along with the state governments on serious healthcare issues such as maternal and child mortality.” Dr. Piramal further added, “We truly believe that the solutions to India’s health problems lie in innovation and structured research in clinical and public health. We hope that the presence of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health will contribute positively towards this process.”

“India’s rapidly growing health system is placing huge demands on the country’s capacity to educate the next generation of researchers, clinical and public health professionals, and health system policymakers and managers,” said Dean Hunter. ”We believe the new Mumbai centre will enable us to establish new collaborations and expand existing partnerships to increase the number of trained public health professionals and researchers in India, and to help strengthen the leadership of public health officials in central and state governments as well as private health-sector organisations. We are also excited by the opportunities to expand our research activities here in coordination with India’s leading public health organisations, and to devise new ways to prevent disease that are scalable and will work not only in India but globally,” he added.

“We are very excited by the opportunities the new Mumbai office will help facilitate,” said Dr Kasisomayajula Viswanath, Director of the new Mumbai centre. “As the world’s second most populous country—and projected to become its most populous by 2030—India has a unique opportunity through public health interventions ranging from smoking cessation initiatives to maternal and infant health programmes to improve the well-being of all its citizens, as well as to improve global health more broadly. We are all proud to be part of what we anticipate will be an exciting time in public health in one of the largest democracies in the world,” he added.