Currently we face siloed and redundant approaches in education (from primary to professional levels) that do not teach individuals to collaborate and think innovatively. This problem is coupled with a lack of capacity and ability among those at local levels to develop decentralised and context specific solutions. Simultaneously, we face a lack of openness and inclusivity in policy making, as well as a focus on short term solutions for complex problems like technologies and digitalization. We also face significant inequities within and across states regarding our health systems. These factors have led to wasted resources, duplication of efforts, contradiction of actions, and an incomplete understanding of problems due to lack of data sharing. Surges in COVID-19 in different parts of our country have reflected the lack of collaboration across sectors and bottom-up reaction rather than implementing top-down guidelines. Further, despite the space for decentralised decision making and community engagement, there has been an absence of context customised planning and implementation of solutions.