India, June 1 -- The Union health ministry has released the sixth round of the National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-6). Between this round of NFHS (2023-24) and the first one, conducted in 1992-93, is sandwiched almost the entire post-economic reform period in India. The evolution of NFHS trends, therefore, tells us an important story. With economic growth, the consequent greater revenue cushion and the social sector spending it facilitated, India has done well to cover the most glaring holes in its social health outcomes such as reproductive health and child-care. On some, such as institutionalised deliveries, the success is stellar - from less than 40% in NFHS-1 to 90% in NFHS-6. On others, such as child undernutrition, challenges remain, but the progress is anything but insignificant. As the country gets rid of some of its typical low-income infrastructure challenges, there are new problems which need to be tackled. More Indian men and women are now overweight than underweight. Lifestyle diseases are becoming more prevalent and the share of older people in the population is rising. Population growth itself has already peaked. Solving these next-generation challenges is going to be trickier than rolling out last-mile family welfare infrastructure. It will also require shedding past ghosts such as rhetoric around population explosion. But solve it we must. While NFHS's primary mandate is reproductive health, it tells us much more than that. Women's agency has continued to increase across India, in terms of their say in family decisions, their access to bank accounts, and even using the internet. This ought to be welcomed unambiguously. And yet, there are other data sources such as the Time Use Survey, which tell us that women continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden of household work, especially its unpaid components. What will it take to make further advances vis-a-vis the challenges the NFHS numbers flag before us? State and markets must work as complements rather than substitutes. India's JAM trinity, the harbinger of last-mile leakage free benefits is the best example. The financial inclusion bit of the network has been facilitated by public sector banks. Internet access is the handwork of private telecom operators. Similarly, government provided health insurance coverage seems to be working via private health providers. There is much to be celebrated in this State-market synergy. But this success ought not to be a drop in guard vis-a-vis probable market failures....