“Needs to be addressed with scientific precision and policy discipline”

“Obesity has emerged as a public health challenge in India, and is not a mere cosmetic issue. The challenge needs to be addressed with scientific precision and policy discipline,” said Union Minister of State for Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Dr. Jitendra Singh, while speaking at the panel discussion "Clinician–Scientist Interaction on Obesity" during the India International Science Festival (IISF) here.

Held in the presence of leading experts from clinical medicine, biomedical research and public policy, the session brought together a multidisciplinary perspective on India’s rising metabolic health burden. The Minister addressed a packed audience at IISF, emphasising how societal behaviour, market forces, and misinformation have complicated India’s obesity landscape.

The dais featured leading experts from India’s scientific and medical community, including Dr. Ashwani Pareek, Executive Director of NABI; Dr. Vinod Kumar Paul and Dr V.K. Saraswat, Members NITI Aayog; Prof. Ullas Kolthur, Director of CDFD; Dr. Ganesan Karthikeyan, Executive Director of THSTI; and senior endocrinologists Dr. Sanjay Bhadada and Dr. Sachin Mittal.

Dr. Jitendra Singh noted that Indian society has historically viewed obesity as a cosmetic issue rather than a disease, which has delayed scientific conversations around it. “For decades, our medical conferences discussed diabetes and metabolic disorders, but never obesity. It is only in the last 15 years that we have even begun treating it as a subject of serious medical relevance,” he observed.

The minister highlighted India’s unique phenotype, especially the higher prevalence of central or visceral obesity in Oriental populations. “For Indians, the waistline tells a more important story than the weighing scale,” he said, stressing that visceral fat is an independent risk factor even when overall body weight appears normal.

Addressing the widespread and fashionable adoption of GLP-based drugs, the Minister urged caution with judicious use and emphasised that sometimes long-term effects become evident several years later. He recalled past public-health misjudgements, such as the unregulated shift to refined oils in the 1970s and 80s, which later revealed unfavourable consequences.  True clinical inference may come from observing outcomes over decades,” he pointed out.

Dr. Jitendra Singh also referred to emerging concerns such as sarcopenia and “Ozempic face” linked to rapid or drug-induced weight loss, stressing that the full spectrum of physiological impact is still not fully understood.