Nachiket Mor on Rethinking India’s Healthcare System

Today my guest is Nachiket Mor, a health economist whose work focuses on the design of national and regional health systems. He is a visiting scientist at the Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy at IIIT Bangalore, and a commissioner and author on the Lancet Citizens' Commission on Reimagining India's Health System, which published its final report in The Lancet in January 2026.

We talked about the different layers of the Indian healthcare system, the design and policy failures in both public and private sector healthcare, the role of community workers, the health insurance and regulation market, and much more. 

Recorded January 29th, 2026.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship.

Connect with Ideas of India

Follow us on X

Follow Shruti on X

Follow Nachiket on X

Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Timestamps

(00:00:00) - 1991 Fellowship
(00:01:11) - Intro
(00:02:32) - Policy Design Failure in India's Healthcare System
(00:07:43) - Layers of Indian Healthcare
(00:14:04) - ASHA Workers
(00:23:59) - State Capacity
(00:26:47) - The Exit to the Private Sector
(00:34:00) - Getting Ambitious with ASHA Workers
(00:37:54) - Stacking Healthcare
(00:51:53) - India's Private Sector Healthcare
(01:05:14) - Government Insurance Instruments
(01:13:10) - Insurance Regulation in India
(01:41:09) - Outro