RTSL: India - Resolve to Save Lives

RTSL: India

Resolve to Save Lives’ New Delhi office opened its doors in 2024 to serve our longstanding partnerships for cardiovascular health in India.

India graphic for Resolve to Save Lives 2024 Annual Report "From bottlenecks to breakthroughs"

Resolve to Save Lives is committed to supporting the Government of India in achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.4. To strengthen hypertension treatment and control under the National Program for Prevention & Control of NCDs (NP-NCD), RTSL launched the award-winning India Hypertension Control Initiative (IHCI) in 2017 in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, state governments, the Indian Council of Medical Research, and the World Health Organization (WHO). In just a few short years, IHCI grew to provide quality care to millions of patients with hypertension and diabetes. With IHCI strategies now successfully integrated into the National Program, we continue to work with the Government and partners to strengthen primary health care for hypertension and diabetes control.

We also focus on promoting healthier diets to improve heart health in India, with an emphasis on sodium reduction to support the Government of India’s goal of a 30% reduction in salt intake at the population level. Our key areas of work include supporting interventions like replacing edible salt with low-sodium substitutes in households, implementing healthy food procurement policies in schools and other public settings, and supporting the government in reducing the consumption of processed and packaged foods through interventions like front-of-pack labelling, fiscal measures, and marketing restrictions on unhealthy foods, all aimed at fostering a healthier food environment.

A female Indian health care worker hands a patient a strip of medication through a hole in a protective screen
Pharmacist dispensing hypertension medicines to a patient at UPHC Heerapur in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Courtesy of the India Hypertension Control Initiative.

In 2021, India became the first low- to middle-income country to join our global movement to eliminate trans fat from the food supply by adopting WHO’s REPLACE action package, developed and implemented with RTSL’s technical expertise. Our support for trans fat elimination in India continues through efforts to strengthen laboratories for effective monitoring and enforcement, as well as by advancing research on healthier replacement options.

News from India

A man having his blood pressure measured

Rural India Supporting Trust and Resolve to Save Lives: Supporting primary health care for cardiovascular health

February 18, 2025
We're proud to announce a new partnership with RIST to support the Government of India to improve effective treatment of high blood pressure and diabetes…
Image of man holding aching heart in background. Headshot of RTSL director Dr. Indu Bhushan and CNBC-TV18 log

“India cannot afford to ignore the dangers posed by trans fats”

September 12, 2024
Dr. Indu Bhushan calls for strict enforcement of trans fat regulations to save an estimated 70,000 deaths per year in India.…
conference room group photo with members from RTSL, Nutrition International, WHO India, and the Iodine Global Network in the forefront and projector screen with title slide in the background

Balancing sodium reduction and iodine nutrition for heart health

September 2, 2024

Salt is often fortified with iodine, a necessary ingredient for health. But too much sodium, the main ingredient in salt, is bad for the heart. RTSL recently co-hosted a meeting…

Resources

BMJ Open Quality_QI in India

Improving follow-up visits among individuals with hypertension: Quality Improvement project in the District Hospital, Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India, 2021–2022

Interventions identified by India Hypertension Control Initiative’s quality improvement program successfully increased monthly follow-up visits and decreased missed health visits.
BMC_Private providers in India paper

Improving hypertension care among private sector providers in India

Encouraging private sector providers in India to prioritize high blood pressure control with a focus on improving medication access could make a big difference in health for the country.
by Andrew E. Moran, et al.
Using timeliness metrics for household contact tracing and TB preventive therapy in the private sector, India

Using timeliness metrics for household contact tracing and TB preventive therapy

Can 7-1-7 help household contacts of tuberculosis patients get started on preventive therapy? In India, sites using the timeliness metric saw an increase in household contacts starting treatment.
by IJTLD
s12913-024-11354-9

Decentralizing hypertension care in Punjab and Maharashtra States

by BioMed Central Ltd

Contact us

Resolve To Save Lives Services 
Private Limited Regus,
4th Floor, Rectangle No 1, 

Commercial Complex D4, Saket, 

New Delhi-110017, India

Phone01166544051
CINU82990DL2023FTC422985
Email[email protected]