While the incompetence of India’s central government has been well reported, Prime Minister Modi presides over decades of healthcare under-investment and the deepest structural inequalities. What hope is there in the short term of remedying the situation and bringing the pandemic under control? Melisa Idris and Sharaad Kuttan speak to Professor Sanjeev Krishna, Professor of Molecular Parasitology and Medicine, Institute of Infection and Immunity, London.