Despite bearing the world's largest diabetes burden — over 101 million diagnosed cases — India has built an ecosystem of ultra-affordable generics, grassroots telemedicine, and aggressive early-screening programmes that Dr V. Mohan, one of the country's foremost diabetologists, says now constitutes a replicable blueprint for low- and middle-income countries, according to The Hindu.

The 5W+H: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How

  • Who: Dr V. Mohan, chairman of Dr. Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre and one of India's most cited diabetologists, with four decades of research and clinical work.
  • What: Dr Mohan has stated that India's diabetes care experience — spanning affordable generics, telemedicine outreach, and community-level lifestyle interventions — can serve as a scalable model for other developing nations.
  • When: The statement was reported in June 2025, coinciding with growing global interest in India's non-communicable disease management strategies.
  • Where: India, which the International Diabetes Federation classifies as the country with the highest number of people living with diabetes worldwide.
  • Why: Because India's constraints — vast populations, limited specialist density, tight budgets — mirror those of much of the Global South, making its improvised solutions directly transferable rather than theoretical.
  • How: Through a combination of generic insulin and oral hypoglycaemics at a fraction of Western prices, telemedicine networks that reach semi-urban and rural patients, community health worker-led screening drives, and prevention-focused lifestyle intervention trials modelled on the landmark Indian Diabetes Prevention Programme.

Here is a number that should stop you mid-scroll: India is home to more than 101 million people living with diagnosed diabetes — a population larger than the entire citizenry of Germany. Add another 136 million estimated pre-diabetics, according to the International Diabetes Federation's 2024 atlas, and you have a slow-burning epidemic that could overwhelm any health system on earth. And yet, rather than looking away in horror, public-health planners from sub-Saharan Africa to Southeast Asia are looking at India and asking: how did you manage?

The answer, according to Dr V. Mohan — arguably the most recognised name in Indian diabetology — is not a single miracle drug or a government programme written in a Lutyens committee room. It is something far more interesting: a four-decade-long improvisation under pressure, stitched together from generic medicines that cost pennies on the dollar, telemedicine consultations that jump the urban-rural divide, and community-level screening drives powered by frontline health workers who cannot spell "endocrinology" but can measure HbA1c. As reported by The Hindu, Dr Mohan now argues that this very patchwork amounts to a coherent, exportable blueprint for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The claim sounds paradoxical — and that paradox is the story. India still routinely earns the grim sobriquet "diabetes capital of the world." Its per-capita health expenditure remains a fraction of China's, let alone the UK's. Amputations, blindness, and kidney failure from poorly managed diabetes remain heartbreakingly common in districts where a single endocrinologist serves a million people. How can the country with the worst problem also offer the best template?

The Four Pillars of the 'Indian Blueprint'

1. Generic medicines at globally unmatched prices. India's pharmaceutical ecosystem produces metformin, glimepiride, and even human insulin at costs 90-95 per cent below branded equivalents in the United States. A month's supply of metformin can cost as little as ₹30-50 in a Jan Aushadhi outlet. This is not charity — it is industrial economics, and it gives India a medication-access advantage that no Western model can replicate for countries at comparable income levels. For nations in Africa and Southeast Asia where branded diabetes medication can consume a third of a household's monthly income, India's generic pipeline is not merely helpful — it is existential.

2. Telemedicine networks that leapfrog the specialist gap. India's specialist-to-patient ratio in diabetology is vanishingly thin outside the metros. The response, accelerated sharply after the COVID-19 pandemic formalised teleconsultation norms, has been to push diabetology expertise outward through digital platforms — connecting district hospitals and even primary health centres with tertiary specialists. Dr Mohan's own network, spanning over 70 centres, has been a quiet pioneer of this hub-and-spoke model.

3. Community-level screening and prevention. The Indian Diabetes Prevention Programme (IDPP), published in 2006 and led in part by Dr Mohan's research team, demonstrated that lifestyle intervention — structured dietary changes and regular physical activity counselled by community health workers — could reduce the conversion from pre-diabetes to diabetes by 28.5 per cent in an Indian population cohort. That figure may sound modest against the 58 per cent achieved by intensive interventions in the U.S. Diabetes Prevention Programme, but the Indian version was delivered at a fraction of the cost and in real-world conditions, making it vastly more scalable.

4. A research ecosystem built on Indian phenotypes. Much of global diabetes research has historically centred on Caucasian populations. India's long investment in studying its own genetic and metabolic susceptibilities — including the observation, now well established, that South Asians develop insulin resistance at lower BMI thresholds — means the data being generated is directly relevant to populations across the Global South that share similar metabolic profiles. This is not a minor academic footnote; it means treatment thresholds and screening criteria developed in India are more actionable in Lagos or Jakarta than data from Framingham or Uppsala.

The Caveats a Careful Reader Needs

No responsible reading of Dr Mohan's proposition stops at the hopeful headline. India Herald's assessment is that the blueprint is real but incomplete — and the gaps are as instructive as the successes.

First, access is radically uneven. The affordable generics exist, but supply-chain failures mean they do not always reach the sub-district pharmacy where they are needed most. According to WHO estimates, fewer than half of Indians with diabetes achieve adequate glycaemic control — a statistic that would be considered a crisis in any country claiming model status.

Second, the prevention arm remains dramatically underfunded. While the IDPP proved the concept, scaling lifestyle intervention to a country of 1.4 billion people requires a cadre of trained community health workers that India has not yet fully built. The Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres were designed in part to fill this role, but ground-level implementation has been inconsistent, according to multiple assessments by health-policy researchers.

Third, there is the uncomfortable question of screening itself. India's 101 million figure may be an undercount. The IDF estimates that roughly 50 per cent of diabetics in India remain undiagnosed — meaning the true burden could be significantly higher. A blueprint that does not detect half the people it is meant to serve is, by definition, a work-in-progress.

Why the World Is Watching Anyway

The reason Dr Mohan's argument resonates despite these caveats is brutally pragmatic. For a country like Nigeria, Kenya, or Bangladesh — each facing its own diabetes surge with per-capita health budgets well below $100 — the choice is not between the Indian model and the British one. The choice is between adapting the Indian patchwork and having no model at all. India's constraints — massive populations, thin specialist density, tight government budgets, patients who pay largely out of pocket — ARE the constraints of the Global South. The solutions India has improvised are solutions built for exactly those conditions.

India Herald's read of where this goes next: Dr Mohan's framing is likely to accelerate a trend already visible in WHO and World Bank circles — the shift from prescribing high-income-country health models to studying "reverse innovation" from large LMICs. India's diabetes story, with all its contradictions, is becoming a policy export in the same way its generic pharmaceutical industry became one two decades ago. The countries that adopt the Indian blueprint earliest — particularly the telemedicine spine and the community-screening arm — are likely to see measurable improvements in diabetes detection and early management within five to seven years, provided they invest in the health-worker cadre that India itself is still scaling up.

The deeper question, though, is for India itself. Can a country that has built a care model good enough for the world to copy now muster the political will to fund it properly at home — to close the screening gap, fix the supply chain, and turn 50 per cent glycaemic control into 80? The blueprint is real. The question is whether the architect will finish building its own house.

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By the Numbers

  • India has 101 million diagnosed diabetics — more than the entire population of Germany (IDF 2024 Atlas).
  • Generic metformin costs ₹30-50/month in India's Jan Aushadhi outlets, 90-95% below US branded equivalents.
  • The Indian Diabetes Prevention Programme reduced pre-diabetes-to-diabetes conversion by 28.5% through community-level lifestyle intervention (IDPP, 2006).
  • Roughly 50% of diabetics in India remain undiagnosed, per IDF estimates.
  • Fewer than half of diagnosed Indian diabetics achieve adequate glycaemic control, according to WHO estimates.

Key Takeaways

  • India has over 101 million diagnosed diabetics and an estimated 136 million pre-diabetics, making it the largest diabetes burden on earth — yet its improvised care model is now being studied as a template for the Global South.
  • Generic diabetes medications in India cost 90-95% less than branded equivalents in the US, with metformin available for as little as ₹30-50/month through Jan Aushadhi outlets.
  • The Indian Diabetes Prevention Programme showed that community-level lifestyle intervention reduced pre-diabetes-to-diabetes conversion by 28.5% at a fraction of the cost of Western equivalents.
  • Despite the blueprint's promise, fewer than half of India's diabetics achieve adequate glycaemic control, and an estimated 50% remain undiagnosed, per WHO and IDF data.
  • Dr V. Mohan argues that India's constraints — vast population, thin specialist density, tight budgets — mirror those of most LMICs, making its solutions directly transferable rather than theoretical.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the 'Indian Blueprint' for diabetes care that Dr V. Mohan describes?

It refers to a combination of ultra-affordable generic medicines, telemedicine networks connecting rural areas to specialists, community-level screening and prevention programmes led by frontline health workers, and research tailored to South Asian metabolic profiles — all developed under India's resource constraints and now considered scalable for other low- and middle-income countries.

How many people in India have diabetes?

According to the International Diabetes Federation's 2024 Atlas, India has over 101 million diagnosed diabetics and approximately 136 million pre-diabetics. However, an estimated 50% of cases remain undiagnosed, meaning the true burden may be significantly higher.

Why is India called the 'Diabetes Capital of the World'?

India has the highest absolute number of people living with diabetes of any country, driven by genetic susceptibility (South Asians develop insulin resistance at lower BMI thresholds), rapid urbanisation, dietary shifts toward processed foods, and sedentary lifestyles. The combination of a 1.4 billion population and high prevalence rates produces the world's largest diabetes cohort.

Can India's diabetes model work in African and Southeast Asian countries?

Dr V. Mohan and public-health researchers argue yes, because India's constraints — large populations, limited specialists, low per-capita health spending, and predominantly out-of-pocket payment — closely mirror those in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. The generic-medicine pipeline and telemedicine spine are considered the most directly transferable elements.

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V. Mohan diabetes Global South generic medicines telemedicine Indian Diabetes Prevention Programme IDF WHO public health non-communicable diseases

Dr. Kotii Reddy Saripalli

30/06/2026 02:49 PM