It is for the first time in recent history that almost the entire world is facing a shared threat - the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite specific contexts and capabilities of countries and communities, there are potential lessons to be learnt from their strategies and experiences in tackling this shared threat. Towards this end, ICRIER and the India Office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung(KAS) have come together to organize a webinar series on "COVID-19 Global Best Practices - Lessons for / from India". The present policy brief is based on desk research and discussions during the first webinar in this series on "Tracking COVID-19 - Public health and socioeconomic surveillance" held on 27th of April 2021.