Feb 09: TCG CREST (Deemed University) announced the launch of its School of Health, Environment & Sustainability Studies (SHESS), a new translational interdisciplinary school focused on health systems transformation, through citizen-centred approach converging population health equity, data & evidence-driven policy-making and frugal healthtech innovation. SHESS has been established to address critical health system challenges in India and other low- and middle-income countries by integrating research, education, and policy engagement. The School brings two more crucial dimensions – climate-related health impacts including mental health, and a clear focus on translating research into scalable, real-world solutions.
SHESS will offer three genres of courses – PhD and Postgraduate programmes in Health Data Science, Public Health, and Health & Environment Sciences (August 2026), signature courses of short-term that will focus on creating change agents in its two focus areas (technology innovation and reducing societal disease burden) and professional courses targeted at implementation pathways and employment generation (Diploma in Critical Care Technology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Management – April 2026). Integrated PG–PhD pathways will be rolled out progressively during 2026–27 and 2027–28.
“TCG CREST was founded on the belief that the most pressing challenges of 21st century cannot be addressed within traditional academic silos,” said Malabika Sarkar, Mentor, TCG CREST. “SHESS reflects this commitment. By embedding an Evidence-to-Policy approach at its core, the School is designed to ensure that rigorous, interdisciplinary research directly informs programme design, governance frameworks, and policy decisions that determine long-term population health outcomes in India and other countries.”
The School is led by Dr. Satadal Saha, Dean, School of Health, Environment & Sustainability Studies. Dr. Saha brings over four decades of leadership across health systems and will leverage his experience from IIT Kharagpur and IIT Guwahati where he played a pivotal role in establishing inter-disciplinary translational health-tech research centres.
“Health systems today are under simultaneous pressure from data-thin anecdotal decision-making, technology barrier, lack of information on disease biology & epigenetics in the diverse context that India presents, environment & climate stress, demographic change, and persistent inequities in access and affordability. SHESS has been created to respond to this reality by building a unique ecosystem where AI, data science and frugal health technologies converge to solve the most pressing challenges of our time. Our goal is to drive a Health Systems Transformation agenda that ensures scientific evidence is translated into policies with demonstrated effectiveness that achieve health equity for vulnerable populations,” said Dr. Satadal Saha, Dean, SHESS.
The School’s advisory board includes Marc Madou (Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of California, Irvine), Indrani Gupta (Professor, Health Policy, Institute of Economic Growth), Bhramar Mukherjee (Senior Associate Dean, Yale School of Public Health), L S Sashidhara (Director, NCBS–TIFR), Swarup Sarkar (Senior Researcher, University of Gothenburg), and Gautam Menon (Dean–Research, Ashoka University).
To mark the establishment of the School, TCG CREST recently hosted the Inaugural International Conference on “Population Health: Evidence, Policy & Action” during 20th – 21st January 2026. The two-day event brought together over 170 participants, including public health experts, engineering scientists working on healthtech, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from India and overseas. The conference focused on translating research evidence into policy and on-ground action, with discussions spanning health systems strengthening, climate–health linkages, digital and frugal innovations, and equity-oriented approaches.