Published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal, the study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research–India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) confirmed that India is now home to 101 million diabetics.

The study said that 15.3 percent of the population (at least 136 million people) is pre-diabetic – an individual who has higher-than-normal blood sugar levels but is not high enough to be considered a diabetic. A pre-diabetic is said to fall in the high-risk group of developing diabetes.

Besides diabetes, lifestyle diseases like hypertension and obesity also showed a northward spiral. The study found that around 35.5 percent of the people had hypertension or high blood pressure, and about 39.5 percent and 28.6 percent suffered from abdominal obesity and overall obesity, respectively. Around 24 percent of the surveyed population suffered from hypercholesterolemia or high bad cholesterol levels (LDL).