India will soon feature on the obesity map

With such large numbers, India has been requested to join the International Congress on Obesity (ICO) for further study on the risk and management of the overweight in a developing economy.

The formal request came at the 8th European Congress on obesity, held recently at Dublin in Ireland.

Dr V Ravindranath Reddy, an obesity management expert who represented India at the Dublin meet, told PTI that an Asian chapter on obesity would soon be set up, and affiliated to the ICO. With this, India would be one of the first nations from the developing countries in Asia to be put on the obesity map.

Though the study of obesity has branched off as a separate wing of medicine, it is still part of internal medicine in India. "The setting up of an Asian chapter on obesity will formally mark the beginning of another medical discipline in India, " says Reddy.