Health and Beyond… Strategies for a Better India: Incorporating Evidence to Strengthen Health Policy

India plans to roll-out universal health coverage in spite of having one of the lowest governments spending on health in the world. A scenario such as this means that health policy decisions particularly with respect to priority setting and resource allocation are often difficult and riddled with difficult choices. Moreover, a variety of decisions and determinants beyond the barriers of the health system has to be taken into account in a pluralistic and diverse nation like India during the healthy policy making process. The review provides a brief overview on the current policy making scenario, where often decisions are not based on latest research evidence, but on placating powerful activist groups and is more problem oriented rather than being solution oriented. Various opportunities which exist in order to incorporate evidence in order to inform health policy are discussed. The article highlights the need to develop a transparent, inclusive and independent mechanism to prospectively appraise all available evidence and help inform policy-making based on predetermined criteria and to as evaluate the impact of policy decisions thereby helping in knowledge creation, translation as well as its implementation.