Pawan Agarwal CEO, Food Future Foundation

Pulkit Mathur Pulkit Mathur is professor, food and nutrition, Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi

India stands at a turning point in its nutrition journey. Undernutrition persists even as childhood overweight, obesity, early-onset diabetes and fatty liver disease are rising. A November 2025 Lancet 3-paper series, ' Ultra-Processed Foods and Human Health', warns that children are consuming unprecedented levels of packaged, salty, sugary and fatty foods. In India, these foods appear in school tiffin, canteens and shops, shaping habits before adulthood.

This is why lessons from Japan and Vietnam matter. These two Asian countries show what becomes possible when schools serve as the frontline of nutrition and food culture - not just places wh

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