India faces critical human resources shortages for key cadres such as doctors, specialists, nurses, and midwives. Other key challenges include suboptimal deployment of staff exacerbated by a skewed urban-rural distribution, gaps in certain specialties, and inefficient use of staff due to poor rationalization of tasks. Lack of comprehensive, reliable, and up-to-date data and an absence of commonly agreed definitions and analytical tools make the task of managing the health workforce more difficult. This study reviewed human resources information systems (HRIS) across all 28 states and 7 union territories to assess their purpose, scope, coverage, software technology, usability, and sustainability. The study points out the need for a national HRIS framework to move all states to a web-based platform with common technologies and data structures.
