GKII, October 15, 2025On September 25, 2025, the GKII India Education Liaison Service (ELS) hosted a discussion with Keystone Education Group, a global leader in student recruitment and digital marketing for higher education. This was the 12th GKII ELS meeting organized by Beth Romanski, GKII’s U.S.-based Program Manager, who leads GKII’s Education Initiatives. Previous meetings were hosted with Study Portals and IDP, key players in the international education recruitment. In the latest session representatives presented on the perception students from India had of the United States as a leading destination for higher education, as well as new engagement metrics. The Education Liaison Service serves as a central hub within Johns Hopkins University to advance India-focused education and research initiatives, helping faculty and administrators navigate India’s higher education landscape and foster new academic partnerships.
GKII, October 14, 2025The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neurosurgery and the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute (GKII) recently co-hosted a seminar titled “The Changing Landscape of Higher Education in India,” as part of the Neuroscience Postdoctoral Career Guidance Series. The event featured Dr. S. Somanath, Chancellor of Chanakya University and former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), who led India’s historic Chandrayaan-3 mission—the first successful soft landing on the Moon’s south pole. The seminar explored opportunities for collaboration in research, education, and innovation between Johns Hopkins and India’s rapidly evolving higher education sector. Dr. Somanath spoke about the transformative impact of India’s National Education Policy 2020 and the country’s vision for Viksit Bharat@2047, a roadmap to becoming a developed nation by 2047.
GKII, October 13, 2025The National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW) and Johns Hopkins, through GKII, are collaborating to advance training and capacity development across India’s public health system. GKII builds on JHU’s long-standing partnership with NIHFW, expanding joint efforts in systems strengthening and leadership development. Recent workshops include “Decoding Health Behaviour: Why We Do What We Do” on July 31, 2025, co-organized with the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) and the Center for Communication and Change–India (CCC-I), and “Systems thinking through Friday Night at the ER” on October 13, 2025, led by Dr. Cyrus Engineer, DrPH, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
GKII, September 29, 2025As GKII marks its first year under new leadership, our Executive Director Kunal Pal joined the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York to spotlight GKII’s growing role in building bridges between the JHU community in India and the world. Highlights included formalizing a new partnership with Siemens Healthineers on the India RISE Fellowship , and joining leading philanthropists and global development experts at the India Philanthropy Forum and the American India Foundation’s convening on climate, health, and nutrition.
GKII, September 10, 2025On 22-23 September 2025, global experts, community representatives, and health practitioners will gather in Hyderabad for the first regional convening of Developing a Global Framework to Enhance Demand, Access, and Seeking of TB-related Healthcare Services (TB-DASH). TB-DASH is a grant awarded to the UCSF Center for Tuberculosis by Johnson & Johnson to facilitate demand for TB innovations among affected communities, front-line health care workers, and national TB programs using implementation science approaches.
GKII, August 18, 2025On August 5, GKII participated in a roundtable in Mumbai convened by LEAP, a nonprofit led by André Nogueira, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and a systems designer, in partnership with Transform Rural India and with support from the Pirojsha Godrej Foundation. The event showcased Prosperous Many, a holistic rural development initiative that is transforming Jonha, a village in Jharkhand, into a model for integrated progress across livelihoods, health, education, women’s empowerment, and local governance. Developed as a prototype, the Jonha program provides a blueprint for scaling similar models across villages and districts in India. The roundtable brought together corporate social responsibility leaders to engage with this vision for inclusive and replicable rural development.
GKII, August 04, 2025On July 31, GKII in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) and the Center for Communication and Change–India (CCC–I), conducted a workshop at the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW) titled “Decoding Health Behaviour: Why We Do What We Do.” Led by Uttara Bharath Kumar (CCP) and Sanjeeta Agnihotri (CCC–I), the interactive session explored how behavioral science can strengthen public health strategies by addressing the cognitive, social, and structural drivers of health decisions. The workshop is part of GKII’s ongoing strategic collaboration with NIHFW to support public health training and capacity development in India.
GKII, July 01, 2025In collaboration with YRGCARE, GKII recently convened core project teams in Chennai for a two-day planning and preparatory workshop for the upcoming TB Free Schools Initiative. The initiative focuses on identifying, treating, and preventing tuberculosis among school-going children across four implementation sites in Chennai, Pune, Satara, and Gorakhpur. The workshop fostered cross-site coordination and team building ahead of the upcoming full-scale launch.
GKII, July 01, 2025GKII hosted a webinar, “Resurgence of COVID-19: Clinical Preparedness, Public Health Lessons, and the Road Ahead,” spotlighting insights from distinguished JHU India alumni. Speakers: Dr Brian Wahl, Asst Professor, Dept of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, Dr Ashish Goel, Professor and Head, Department of Medicine, Ambedkar State Institute of Medical Sciences, Mona Sharma Rana, MHS, Mental Health Advocate, Dr Nitish Dogra, Public Health Physician & Author (Moderator). The speakers addressed emerging questions around recent COVID-19 case surges in India, and what it means for long-term health system preparedness.
June 02, 2025The meeting introduced the Gupta Klinsky India Institute's (GKII) Girish and Himangi Rishi Student Travel Awards program, highlighting its focus on empowering JHU master's students to conduct impactful research and experiential learning in India. GKII Executive Director Kunal Pal outlined the Institute's four key areas of focus, including research, policy, community engagement, and education. Program Manager Beth emphasized the program's alignment with student learning objectives and its positive impact on participants.
May 13, 2025Did you miss the conference? Then check out our hub for everything related to the inaugural Hopkins India Conference 2025, including panel summaries on Geopolitics and India–U.S. Relations; Inclusive Economic Development; Women at the Center; Higher Education; Development and Sustainability; New Challenges in Healthcare; and Tech Innovations.
March 19, 2025Neetisha Besra, GKII Deputy Director, recently spoke at the Indiaspora Forum for Good 2025 in Abu Dhabi and participated in the Global AI Summit in Dubai. The forum convened members of the global Indian diaspora to discuss the role of private philanthropy in addressing global challenges. The panel featuring Neetisha alongside Milind Pant, Manjula O’Connor, and Mallika Janakiraman, explored key health priorities for the diaspora, underscoring the urgent need for collective action on women's health.
March 19, 2025On March 1, 2025, the National Institute of Health & Family Welfare (NIFHW), convened a strategic meeting in New Delhi to discuss priorities, innovations, and global leadership in public health. The meeting hosted a panel discussion to discuss strategies for strengthening India’s healthcare workforce and integrating cutting-edge innovations to enhance service delivery. Dr. Sara Bennett, Professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and Co-Chair of the Johns Hopkins Gupta-Klinsky India Institute, spoke at the panel and discussed the importance of institutional resilience, workforce development, and data-driven decision-making in advancing public health in India.
March 19, 2025GKII’s recent Breakthrough Grants Webinar spotlighted research from JHU faculty collaborating with Indian institutions. Dr. Christopher Kemp (Assistant Scientist, Bloomberg School of Public Health) and Dr. Nishi Suryavanshi (Behavioral Scientist & Deputy Director, Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Pune) shared insights on integrating mental health support into tuberculosis care. Dr. Sarah Benjamin-Neelon (Professor, Bloomberg School of Public Health) and Dr. Giridhar Babu (Professor, Public Health Foundation of India) presented findings on maternal metabolites and child health outcomes. The session highlighted the impact of cross-border research partnerships in addressing critical public health challenges in India.
March 13, 2025Savita Kanade, a TB Free School Initiative partner and Community Coordinator with BJGMC CTU, Pune, shared information about the launch of the pre-study tuberculosis awareness program in Pune schools. She discusses the team’s engagement with students, teachers, and parents, and describes what they found worked (and what didn’t) when educating communities about TB.
February 21, 2025The Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and Vellore Institute of Technology, Bhopal, jointly hosted the Health Hackathon 2025, providing a venue for students to develop solutions for real-world healthcare challenges. Themed “Improving Health Through Accessible and Empowering Innovation,” the Hackathon saw over 2,600 students from top institutions across the world. Neha Verma and Damini Agarwal, two India-affiliated Hopkins alumni, represented MedTech companies incubated at Johns Hopkins.
January 24, 2025GKII and the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) have partnered to deliver a cutting-edge leadership training program for India’s Civil Services officers: the Friday Night at Emergency Room (FNER) simulation. To explore the evolution of the FNER training, its impact on the participants, and the role of systems thinking in shaping the future of public administration, the JHU team leading this program – Neetisha Besra (NB), Aman Mohan Mishra (AM), Kanchan Pandey (KP), Meghashish Sharma (MS) and Siddharth Mohite (SM) came together for an in-depth interview.
