{"id":14443,"date":"2025-12-24T18:03:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T12:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/?p=14443"},"modified":"2025-12-24T18:03:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T12:33:31","slug":"obesity-has-emerged-as-a-public-health-challenge-in-india-and-is-not-a-mere-cosmetic-issue-says-dr-jitendra-singh-at-india-international-science-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/?p=14443","title":{"rendered":"Obesity has emerged as a public health challenge in India, and is not a mere cosmetic issue, Says Dr. Jitendra Singh at India International Science Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Obesity has emerged as a public health challenge in India, and is not a mere cosmetic issue, Says Dr. Jitendra Singh at India International Science Festival<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n


\n\u201cNeeds to be addressed with scientific precision and policy discipline\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

IISF Panel Highlights lack of provision to check Disinformation on Obesity<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Jitendra Singh Calls for Policy Discipline to Address India\u2019s Rapidly Expanding Metabolic Challenges<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Posted On: 08 DEC 2025 6:03PM by PIB Delhi<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\u201cObesity 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,\u201d said Union Minister of State for Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Dr. Jitendra Singh, while speaking at the panel discussion “Clinician\u2013Scientist Interaction on Obesity” during the India International Science Festival (IISF) here.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Held in the presence of leading experts from clinical medicine, biomedical research and public policy, the session brought together a multidisciplinary perspective on India\u2019s rising metabolic health burden. The Minister addressed a packed audience at IISF, emphasising how societal behaviour, market forces, and misinformation have complicated India\u2019s obesity landscape.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The dais featured leading experts from India\u2019s 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.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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. \u201cFor 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,\u201d he observed.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The minister highlighted India\u2019s unique phenotype, especially the higher prevalence of central or visceral obesity in Oriental populations. \u201cFor Indians, the waistline tells a more important story than the weighing scale,\u201d he said, stressing that visceral fat is an independent risk factor even when overall body weight appears normal.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 True clinical inference may come from observing outcomes over decades,\u201d he pointed out.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Jitendra Singh also referred to emerging concerns such as sarcopenia and \u201cOzempic face\u201d linked to rapid or drug-induced weight loss, stressing that the full spectrum of physiological impact is still not fully understood.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A major portion of the Minister\u2019s address focused on the threat posed by misinformation. He warned that unqualified practitioners and self-styled dietitians are worsening India\u2019s metabolic crisis. \u201cThe challenge in India is not lack of awareness, but the explosive growth of disinformation. Every colony has a dietitian, but no system to verify their qualifications. Unchecked advice and untested formulas can do more harm than obesity itself,\u201d he said, urging policymakers to design mechanisms that safeguard patients from misleading interventions.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

He also pointed to the expanding range of metabolic complications in India. \u201cEarlier every third OPD patient had undiagnosed diabetes; today every third patient has fatty liver. The spectrum is widening, and we need a far more scientific and regulated ecosystem to handle it”.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Concluding his remarks with a parallel to Mark Twain\u2019s famous quip on economics, Dr. Jitendra Singh said: \u201cObesity is too serious a subject to be left only to endocrinologists. It is a societal problem shaped by culture, habits, markets and misinformation, and the stakes are too wide to ignore”.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The session ended with a call for deeper collaboration between clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and the public to address India\u2019s fast-evolving metabolic health challenge.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obesity has emerged as a public health challenge in India, and is not a mere cosmetic issue, Says Dr. Jitendra Singh at India International Science Festival \u201cNeeds to be addressed with scientific precision and policy discipline\u201d IISF Panel Highlights lack of provision to check Disinformation on Obesity Dr. Jitendra Singh Calls for Policy Discipline to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14443"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14446,"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14443\/revisions\/14446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theeducationoverview.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}