Overview
- Nearly 90 million Indian adults now live with diabetes, with prevalence around 10.5% and large numbers likely undiagnosed, according to recent ICMR–INDIAB estimates and expert assessments.
- Clinicians report Type 2 diabetes in teenagers and people in their 20s, while new diagnostic data indicate about 18% of those aged 18–40 are diabetic and nearly a quarter are prediabetic.
- Cardiac danger is prominent, with experts noting diabetics’ higher risk of heart disease and a cited study finding 11.5% of people with type 2 diabetes already show moderately to severely reduced heart function.
- Doctors link the surge to sedentary routines, processed diets, stress and disrupted sleep, with air pollution and endocrine-disrupting exposures increasingly implicated in insulin resistance and poorer glucose control.
- Public-health responses include BMC’s screenings of 559,751 people, counseling for over 159,000 patients and expanded NCD clinics, alongside hospital programs such as diabetic foot services and free insulin pumps for underprivileged children.