How can policy and public health intersect by means of a robust administrative infrastructure? What can history and satire teach us about the policy problems of the present?

Pranay Lal—a “big picture guy”—is obsessed with such questions. Although his core competencies lie in public health, environment and the development sector, Pranay has, in recent years, branched out to become one of India’s most widely appreciated natural history writers.

At The Union, where he has been working since 2007, Pranay is responsible for providing strategic and policy advice, with a special focus on India and South Asia.  His role also includes identifying external opportunities to advance the public health agenda alongside monitoring traditional and social media to identify possible new partners, audiences and advocacy opportunities.

Pranay has previously been a policy advisor at Advocacy Control of TB Internationally (ACTION) as well as a director of policy at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

Pranay’s first book, Indica: A Deep History of the Indian Subcontinent, blends India’s geological history with its ecological past through the skillful use of fossil records, tracing the formation of the subcontinent in the process. It has been recognized as the “first compelling narrative of India’s deep natural history” by The Hindu.