China-India Human Development Initiative

China and India: Parallel History, Similar Challenges

China and India are societies of enormous global significance. Together their 2.6 billion people account for 40 percent of the world's population. Approximately equal in demographic weight, China and the three major countries of South Asia (India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan) also contribute one quarter of the world's 133 million annual births. Because of differential fertility, India will surpass China as the world's most populous country around the year 2030.

China and India today confront daunting health challenges. Both countries have captured international imagination for their very rapid rates of economic growth, achieved through the harnessing of private markets. Both countries offer increasingly attractive bases for scientific research, biotechnology research and development, and the pharmaceutical industry.

GEI's China-India Initiative's First Focus: Health

The vibrancy of the economies, unfortunately, is not matched by health developments. Both China and India suffer from severe health imbalances, health gaps, and health inequities. With this in mind, the research themes of this program at GEI begin with the following categories: human resources for health, children's health, gender, and financing.

Because of GEI's extensive research investment in the area of Human Resources for Health, the China-India Initiative will begin by launching assessments of the human resources challenges in the health field that each country currently faces.

Partners at the Global Health Workforce Alliance and the Department of Environment, Resource, and Development Economics at Peking University will join with GEI team members and public health leaders within China and India to conduct this research.

More Information

To learn more about the background of GEI's China-India Human Development Initiative, please visit these pages:

• Human Resources for Health at GEI - This site provides background information on GEI's work within the JLI-HRH, including publications, presentations, and other news items generated by this initiative. The JLI-HRH study will provide the basis for the forthcoming Human Resources for Health assessments in China and India.
  
  
• China-India Initiative Researchers - Here, you can read about the members of the GEI team and their affiliates who comprise the organizing committee for this new program.
  
  
• China-India Publications - This page lists past GEI publications relevant to the new initiative and provides links to the program researchers' own publications pages.
  

Please visit our affiliates' websites for more information:

• Harvard University Asia Center
  
  
• Asia Programs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government
  
  
• The Department of Environment, Resource, and Development Economics at Peking University
  
  
• University of Oxford's Department of Economics