The IIHS provides advisory services to national and state governments, public, parastatal municipal agencies, international agencies and private firms in the broad area of human settlements and urbanisation, with a view to providing cutting edge and integrated solutions to some of India's emerging urban development challenges. It also serves on a number of national and state level government committees and policy fora. These engagements have considerably influenced policy process and implementation in sectors like water and sanitation, housing, climate change and land records, among others. Current IIHS practice on the environmental services focuses on a range of issues such as water supply, sanitation and integrated basic environmental services. Practitioners have also been exploring notions of common property and shared natural resources, environmental governance, issues of water supply and management, and the provision of water and sanitation services to urban populations, especially the urban poor. Projects have also included the evaluations of national and state programmes and policies from a sustainability perspective, as well as large scale implementation support partnerships. This area of practice is directly aligned with the School of Urban Systems and Infrastructure, and the School of Human Development.

One Indian social entrepreneur has given women from low income groups in India dignity, by making it possible for them to afford to buy sanitary towels and provide them with an income at the same time. Arunachalam Murugananthamis the person who changed things. From a poor background in the South of India, he created the worlds first low-cost machine to produce sanitary towels. According to a report by market research group AC Nielsen, Sanitary Protection: Every Woman's Health Right, 88% of women in India are driven to use ashes, newspapers, sand husks and dried leaves during their periods. As a result of these unhygienic practices, more than 70% of women suffer from reproductive tract infections, increasing the risk of contracting associated cancers. Muruganantham re-engineered a sanitary machine, and in 2006 it won the award for the best innovation for the betterment of society from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. Plus, he also received an Indian presidential award for innovation. Currently more than 5000 machines made by his start-up company, Jayaashree Industries, are installed across all states in India and 20+ other countries. This social entrepreneur sells his low cost machines directly to rural women through the support of bank loans and not-for-profit organisations. A machine operator can learn the entire towel-making process in three hours and then employ three others to help with processing and distribution.

Rebuild and Relief International (RRI) is a German non-governmental organization focusing on the support of refugees and IDPs in Iraq and Syria. RRI has specialized on the provision of humanitarian assistance to people in need, living in "hard-to-reach-areas". Our core competences are "WASH" ​​(water, sanitation and hygiene) and "shelter rehabilitation" (reconstruction/rehabilitation of houses and buildings).