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In this paper, we draw upon and build on three presentations which were part of the plenary session on 'Structural Drivers of Health Inequities' at the National Conference on Health Inequities in India: Transformative Research for Action, organised by the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies in Trivandrum, India. The three presentations discussed the influential role played by globalisation and neoliberalism in shaping economic, social and political relationships across developed and developing countries. The paper further argues that the twin process of globalisation and liberalisation have been important drivers of health inequities. The first segment of the paper attempts a broader conceptualisation of neoliberalism beyond the economic realm. Using Stephanie Lee Mudge's conceptualisation (Soc Econ Rev 6:703–3, 2008) we have analysed how the political, bureaucratic and intellectual domains of neoliberalism have intersected and redefined the role of state and commercialised health services leading to inequities. Neoliberal ideas have reconfigured the role and changed the priorities of non-governmental organisations resulting in a fracture within this movement. n the second segment, we focus on the rise of American philanthro-capitalism, and how the two major foundations, the Rockefeller Foundation (early twentieth century) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (twenty-first century), have shaped the ideology of institutions engaged in international health and influenced the global health agenda. We discuss how the activities of philanthro-capitalists have transformed the architecture of health governance through their top-down organisational culture and deficit of structures to ensure accountability. The third and final segment of the paper focuses on how neoliberalism as a political project and cultural movement has forged alliances with conservative politics and religious fundamentalisms, resulting in negative consequences for women and other marginalised groups. These alliances have resulted in the control of women's bodies and contributed to the reversal of hard-won rights for health and gender justice in many parts of the world.

The complex relationship between globalization and health calls for research from many disciplinary and methodological perspectives. This editorial gives an overview of the content trajectory of the interdisciplinary journal 'Globalization and Health' over the first six years of production, 2005 to 2010. The findings show that bio-medical and population health perspectives have been dominant but that social science perspectives have become more evident in recent years. The types of paper published have also changed, with a growing proportion of empirical studies. A special issue on 'Health systems, health economies and globalization: social science perspectives' is introduced, a collection of contributions written from the vantage points of economics, political science, psychology, sociology, business studies, social policy and research policy. The papers concern a range of issues pertaining to the globalization of healthcare markets and governance and regulation issues. They highlight the important contribution that can be made by the social sciences to this field, and also the practical and methodological challenges implicit in the study of globalization and health.

ABSTRACTThis contribution joins the debate on the politics of global health, and specifically inequality in health. Focusing on three recent and pertinent reports, it examines two opposing perspectives for dealing with this inequality. Driven by the global financial crisis, one perspective attempts to validate the intervention of global capital through markets, technology and research funding in global health; it promotes a uniform model of universal health care based on medical care through insurances, public–private partnerships and a dominant private sector. The other perspective arises from the specific historical experiences of nation states in which health has been treated as a commodity. It highlights the negative impacts on global health of neoliberal reforms, such as reductions in welfare and increasing inequalities, and critiques the optimization of profits from health services, which undermines the government's role in health care. The article analyses the historical evolution of these perspectives and the two kinds of movements that emerged across the globe. Using the case of India, the authors argue that where neoliberalism prevails, health movements must link up with broader democratic and political movements that work for the realignment of structural inequalities and policy shifts for the well‐being of the majority.

The Public Report on Health (PRoH) was initiated in 2005 to understand public health issues for people from diverse backgrounds living in different region specific contexts. States were selected purposively to capture a diversity of situations from better-performing states and not-so-well performing states. Based on these considerations, six states - the better-performing states of Tamil Nadu (TN), Maharashtra (MH) and Himachal Pradesh (HP) and the not-so-well performing states of Madhya Pradesh (MP), Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Orissa (OR) - were selected. This is a report of a study using food diaries to assess food intakes in sample households from six states of India. Method: Food diaries were maintained and all the raw food items that went into making the food in the household was measured using a measuring cup that converted volumes into dry weights for each item. The proportion consumed by individual adults was recorded. A nutrient calculator that computed the total nutrient in the food items consumed, using the 'Nutritive Value of Indian Foods by Gopalan et al., was developed to analyze the data and this is now been made available as freeware (http://bit.ly/ncalculator). The total nutrients consumed by the adults, men and women was calculated. Results: Identifying details having been removed, the raw data is available, open access on the internet http://bit.ly/foodlogxls.The energy consumption in our study was 2379 kcal per capita per day. According to the Summary Report World Agriculture the per capita food consumption in 1997-99 was 2803 which is higher than that in the best state in India. The consumption for developing countries a decade ago was 2681 and in Sub-Saharan Africa it was 2195. Our data is compatible in 2005 with the South Asia consumption of 2403 Kcal per capita per day in 1997-99. For comparison, in industrialized countries it was 3380. In Tamil Nadu it was a mere 1817 kcal. Discussion: The nutrient consumption in this study suggests that food security in the villages studied is far from achieved. It is hoped that the new Food Security Ordinance will make a dent in the situation. The calculator for computing nutrients of foods consumed which we developed based on the ICMR defined nutrient values for Indian foods has been made available as freeware on the internet. This is with the hope that more such studies can be carried out at the household level.