Population level reduction of dietary salt consumption is one of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) best buys and is identified as one of the top five priority non-communicable disease interventions.  The WHO has called for 30% relative reduction in global sodium consumption by 2025.  In India, estimated salt intake is about 10g/day which is twice as high as the WHO recommendation of 5g/day. Like many low- and middle-income countries, more than 80% of the salt consumed in India is either added during cooking or at the table. Habitual excess salt consumption is a main determinant of the disease burden of high blood pressure, which is responsible for about 170 000 deaths in India each year. The prevalence of hypertension in India is projected to nearly double from 140 million to 214 million people by 2030. The leading cause of death in India is cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), with ischemic heart disease and stroke accountable for more than 80% of total CVD deaths. High blood pressure is the

Background: : A robust Primary Health care (PHC) system carries immense potential to improve health outcomes, especially in resource constraint settings. However, for PHC systems to live up to their leadership role we need sufficiently robust data to understand the strengths, target the weaknesses, understand the root causes, and strategic redirections of resources. Against this backdrop, in 2016, Ariadne Labs – in collaboration with the Primary Health care Performance Initiative (PHCPI) and the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (The Alliance) – initiated work funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to inform the development of a Primary Health Care Measurement and Implementation Research Consortium or now known as Primary Health Care Research Consortium (PHCRC). Aim: The mission of the PHCRC is to develop and maintain a global PHC research network led by organizations based in LMICs. To conduct prioritized and policy-relevant research to support the country and global

Background An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is an enlarged area in the lower part of the major vessel that supplies blood to the body. Most AAAs are detected when they are small, and affected patients are monitored by regular repeat imaging until their aneurysm expands to a size where surgical repair is required. The only current treatment is high-risk surgery. Numerous trials have been conducted in the last 20 years to try to identify an effective medical therapy for AAA, but all published trials to date have been unsuccessful. There is substantial epidemiological and pre-clinical evidence to suggest that a widely used, safe and low-cost drug called metformin may prevent serious AAA-related events such as ruptures, death or need for surgery, however a large-scale randomised control trial (RCT) is needed to test any such benefit reliably.  Aims The primary aim of the Metformin Aneurysm Trial (MAT) is to assess whether metformin prevents the need for AAA repair by surgery, or death from A