DRITHI - CDOH
Duration of project - 2023 to 2028
Project Brief
Beyond tracing policy trajectories, this project engages with the global discourse on the Commercial Determinants of Health (CDoH), a framework that highlights the role of commercial actors in shaping population health. It critically examines the relevance of CDoH models in India, where socio-cultural, political, and economic conditions differ from the high-income settings in which these frameworks are usually developed. The study also explores how Indian philosophical, normative, and policy traditions could enrich the conceptual tools used to understand commercial determinants in global health. Key research questions include: What explains major shifts in public policies on these substances since the colonial era? How have legal but harmful industries influenced these shifts? Which bodies of knowledge and dominant discourses shape understandings of CDoH? And what Indian ethical, cultural, or policy perspectives could offer complementary insights?
Objectives
To analyze the diverse trajectories of public policies related to the select psychoactive substances (tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, opium) since the beginning of their industrial-scale production in India.
To specifically understand the role played by the concerned ‘harm industries’ in shaping these policies.
To engage with and contextualize the prevailing concepts (frameworks/models) about commercial determinants of health for India
Research Team
Dr. Upendra Bhojani
Principal Investigator
Mr. Anand Kumar
Research Officer
Mr. Achyutha N G
Research Manager
Ms. Ragavi T S
Research Officer
Dr. Priya Singh
Post Doctoral Fellow
Dr. Satyanarayan Kumbhakar
Senior Research Associate
Charan Mahananda
Junior Research Associate
Former Members
Mr. Jeevan Shetty
Technical Officer
Mentors
Prof. Anna Gilmore
University of Bath, UK
Prof. Fran Baum
University of Adelaide, Australia
Dr. Atul Ambekar
Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS
Collaborators
Dr. C J Kuncheria
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delh
Mr. Pranay Lal
Independent Research, New Zealand
Funding Agency
DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance
https://www.indiaalliance.org/Publications
Shifting the gaze on implementation: examining the association between the implementation of tobacco control laws and prevalence of tobacco using data from a nationally representative survey. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-023-16780-8. BMC Public Health. 11 October 2023
A realist evaluation of the implementation of a national tobacco control programme and policy in India. https://academic.oup.com/heapol/article/40/2/140/7741195?login=false. Oxford Academic. 24 Aug 2024
CHIGURU Adivasi Birth Cohort Study: A Protocol for Examining the Effects of Parental Substance Use on Child Development in Southern Indian Adivasi Communities. https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3897825/v1. Research Square. 07 February 2024
Trends in Level of Implementation of the WHO FCTC Article 5.3 in India. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39280756/. National Library of Medicine. 12 September 2024
Is India on a path to reduce the tobacco industry's influence in tobacco control? Insights from the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index (2019-2023). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39371218/#:~:text=Results%3A%20The%20findings%20of%20the,slight%20increase%20in%20the%20score. National Library of Medicine. 19 September 2024
20th anniversary of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control coming into force: time for a step change in ambition. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)00336-8/abstract00336-8/abstract). The LANCET. 01 March 2025
Towards assessing the tobacco control law enforcement systems within Indian states: a rapid review and document analysis. https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/10-229. Wellcome Open Research. 30 April 2025.
Book Chapter - Chapter 7, Public health approaches to tobacco control. In Arora M, Goenka S (eds) Public health approaches to health promotion.
Strengthening civil society actions to combat transnational corporations. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjgh/2024/12/13/strengthening-civil-society-actions-to-combat-transnational-corporations/. BMJ Global Health. 13 December 2023.