Nutrition as a National Policy for India: Building the Foundation for a Viksit Bharat

Nutrition is the foundation of human development and a decisive factor in India's economic growth, equity, and global standing.Despite decades of policy attention, India continues to face one of the world's heaviest burdens of malnutrition.One in three children under 5 years is stunted (35.5%), and over half of women of reproductive age are anemic (57.0%).Malnutrition drains an estimated 2-3% of gross domestic product (GDP) annually, undermining India's demographic dividend and its aspiration for a five-trillion-dollar economy.This paper reviews the evolution of India's nutrition policies, including integrated child development services (ICDS), PM Poshan, Poshan Abhiyaan, and Anemia Mukt Bharat (AMB), and assesses progress in reducing stunting, wasting, and anemia.State-level innovations from Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh highlight pathways of success and reveal persistent gaps, especially for adolescents and the urban poor.Structural challenges in behavior change, last-mile delivery, financing, and data-driven monitoring remain barriers.The paper proposes five priorities to align nutrition with the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047: Focusing on the first 1,000 days, including adolescents systematically, innovating in anemia control, designing an urban nutrition agenda, and institutionalizing technology-driven monitoring.Nutrition must be treated not as a welfare issue, but as a national development imperative.Embedding it across health, education, agriculture, and social protection is essential for achieving inclusive growth and global leadership.