This report looks at the state of health policies in India and assesses its dynamics its failings and triumphs suggesting, through nuanced essays and empirical data, ways of improving the existing conditions. Comprising four parts the report focuses on welfare system and its implication for health that includes issues related to legislation, policies and welfare programmes. It evaluates its achievements against the Council for Social Development Index which, having evolved over some years, offers an alternative towards enhancing the state and reach of public health in 21st Century India. The report takes stock of the challenges and hurdles faced by the country's health system before focusing on a vision of the future of public sector health services and some priority areas such as issues of nutrition, child health, women's mental stress arising out of ill-health, environmental health in industrial areas and neglect over the turn of the 20th Century. The report concludes with assessing the existing trends in health services and determining the outcome of liberalization and health sector reforms.