The Spin and the Real
Mohan Rao
MEDICAL INNOVATION AND DISEASE BURDEN: CONFLICTING PRIORITIES AND THE SOCIAL DIVIDE IN INDIA by Mohan Rao Cambridge University Press, 2021, 210 pp., 895.00
September 2021, volume 45, No 9

First, a statement of conflict of interest: the author was my student during his MPhil programme at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, where I taught for more than three decades.  I was not his PhD supervisor, but have been in touch with him, as all teachers do with their bright students. He sends me his essays for comments and I have appreciated that gesture. When you have taught for so long in such a small disciplinary space in India, it is inevitable that I get to review my student’s books, or submissions to EPW, the latter of course anonymized.  That my students are publishing books of course fills me with enormous joy; it vindicates my decision to become a public health worker in this small Centre in Jawaharlal Nehru University.

I did indicate to the editor of this journal this problem, but she was confident there was no major ethical issue involved here. She has known me as a reviewer  for  about 25 years.

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