April 01, 2025
Shakti, the Indian Classical Dance team at Johns Hopkins University founded in 2003, brings together a team that melds competition and art into dynamic performances featuring traditional steps set to fast-tempo beats, complex formations, and moving narratives. In this Q&A with Shakti team members, we discuss the importance of culture and how it has brought them to the Origins National Championship. A performance by Shakti will also feature as a highlight at the upcoming Hopkins India Conference.
GKII, March 20, 2025
The March edition of GKII's News Digest features a webinar on key findings from our Breakthrough Grants Program, speaking engagements at panels by faculty co-chair Sara Bennett, Deputy Director Neetisha Besra, and TB Free Schools partner Savita Kanade, and an update on our new Education Liaison Service.
GKII, March 19, 2025
Neetisha 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.
GKII, March 19, 2025
On 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.
GKII, March 17, 2025
GKII’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.
GKII, March 14, 2025
The Gupta-Klinsky India Institute Education Liaison Service (ELS) has been established to support faculty and divisions across JHU in their India-focused education and research initiatives. ELS acts as a central hub, helping faculty and administrators engage effectively with Indian institutions, policymakers, and students. The service offers insights into India’s regulatory landscape, market trends, and partnership opportunities, ensuring JHU aligns its global education strategy with India’s evolving needs. Faculty members receive tailored consultations, access to research, and networking opportunities that help them launch and expand collaborations.
GKII, March 13, 2025
Savita 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.
GKII, March 11, 2025
The edition of Community Voices features spotlights on Chirag Parikh, Vishal Mundlye, and Yash Gulani. It also features news articles with Pravin Krishan, Devesh Kapur, and Smisha Agarwal.
GKII, February 21, 2025
The 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.
GKII, February 19, 2025
Dr. Smisha Agarwal and Dr. Suruchi Gupta, from the Center for Global Digital Health Innovation at Johns Hopkins, recently led a knowledge exchange on telemedicine implementation in New Delhi. The three-day program provided international delegates an in-depth overview India's digital health ecosystem. The exchange produced strategies for telemedicine implementation in lower-middle-income settings, and emphasized the importance of clinical protocols, provider readiness, quality assurance, and community engagement.
GKII, February 19, 2025
“One of the most formative experiences in my journey was working on MediCircle, a startup aimed at improving access to oral chemotherapy drugs. Through this experience, I gained firsthand insight into the systemic challenges in healthcare, from disparities in access to inefficiencies in care delivery. It became clear to me that driving meaningful change as a physician requires not only clinical expertise but also an understanding of healthcare systems, policy, and economics.”
GKII, February 17, 2025
“Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, JH Health System and the wider Hopkins community have played a pivotal role in my professional journey and healthcare career here in the US.”
In our latest edition of GKII Alumni Insights, Vishal Mundlye, a Carey Business School graduate working for the at the Maryland Health Care Commission discusses volunteering at the Hopkins-India Conference 2025, how big data is the future, and his current role in helping improve access to quality, affordable, healthcare.
GKII, February 14, 2025
“India has a wealth of engineers, programmers, and analysts, making it an ideal place to build healthcare infrastructure. By combining expertise from Johns Hopkins with the needs in India, I believe we can expect immense progress in improving care and expanding access.”
Dr. Chirag R. Parikh, Director of the Division of Nephrology and Professor of Medicine, was drawn to nephrology by the interplay of chemistry and mathematics. His curiosity was sparked by the question of how such a small organ could have such a profound impact maintaining body homeostasis. This question led him to a career as a physician scientist, where his work as a nephrologist focuses on the care of patients with inpatient and outpatient kidney diseases, as well as kidney disease in the community.
GKII, February 24, 2025
The Latest News Digest for February showcase two new GKII events: The Hopkins-India Conference in Washington DC, and webinar featuring two awardees of our Breakthrough Research Grants. We also feature an update on the TB Free Schools Initiative, and the learnings from GKII's Girish and Himangi Rishi Student Travel Grant awardees.
GKII, February 12, 2025
A key milestone has been reached for GKII's TB Free Schools Initiative (TFSI): we have formally constituted the TFSI Project Steering Committee to help guide the program's efforts in addressing tuberculosis in school settings across India!
GKII, February 10, 2025
The GKII Girish and Himangi Rishi Student Travel Award empowers students to take their academic learnings beyond the classroom and into the real world, where their contributions can make a tangible difference in healthcare systems worldwide. Since its inception in 2023, the award has enabled 14 students to tackle issues ranging from infectious diseases to health policy reform. In this article, we take a closer look at the experiences of four recent recipients of the travel award — Hrishikesh, Autumn, Divya, and Jaelynn.
GKII, February 06, 2025
Our February 2025 "Community Voices" features a Student Spotlight on Dr. Piyush Singla, an MPH student at Bloomberg School of Public Health and an Alumni Spotlight on Anand Kapai, aCarey Business School alumnus and Vice President of Global Commercial Marketing at Siemens Healthineers. We also share updates on the TB Free Schools Initiative, the FICCI summit by Dr. Veronica Donahue, tips for international students from Dr. James Coker, and an interview with LBSNAA.
Dr. James Coker, January 31, 2025
Dr. James Coker, Director, Center for Biotechnology Education and Senior Lecturer at the Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences recently spoke at the Wisdom Tree’s “Dream, Prepare, Success” webinar to share information on how international students can get the most out if their experiences and education. He also shared these shared practical tips for success and navigating the Johns Hopkins ecosystem of opportunities.
GKII, January 29, 2025
Piyush Singla, a Master of Public Health student, discusses how his work as an IAS officer has shaped his experience at Johns Hopkins through a strong sense of responsibility and purpose. He plans to translate his studies into sustainable, tech-driven solutions for underserved communities.
GKII, January 27, 2025
Tuberculosis remains a major public health challenge in India, affecting millions each year. Recognizing the urgent need for intervention, GKII is collaborating with PubMatic to support the TB-Free Schools initiative—a program dedicated to reducing TB incidence among schoolchildren and fostering healthier learning environments.
GKII, January 24, 2025
GKII 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.
GKII, January 22, 2025
In our latest edition of GKII Alumni Insights, Anand Kapai, a Johns Hopkins Carey Business School graduate and Vice President of Global Commercial Marketing at Siemens Healthineers discusses his career journey, the importance of contextual intelligence in global healthcare, and his advice for students looking to make an impact in the MedTech industry.
GKII, January 21, 2025
Our first news digest of 2025 features multiple video highlights from our trip to India, faculty op-eds and media mentions, and the latest in research and opportunities.
GKII, January 14, 2025
In November 2024, a Johns Hopkins delegation led by President Ron J. Daniels traveled across four cities in India — New Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, and Mumbai. The delegation announced significant university investments in programs aligned with India’s national priorities, focusing on accelerating tuberculosis elimination, advancing gender equality in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine), and expanding palliative care access in rural communities. Check out the highlights from the trip in this video!
GKII, January 07, 2025
In this special edition of our Community Voices newsletter, we highlight spotlights from our Faculty, Alumni, and Student communities created in the past year. Check them out!