Public health and disease control

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India issued draft rules in October 2026 to stop the addition of sucrose and fructose to products meant for infants up to six months old. Comments are open for 60 days.

• The draft is the Food Safety and Standards (Foods for Infant Nutrition) Amendment Regulations, 2026. Under the 2020 regulations, lactose and glucose polymers are the preferred carbohydrates, and sucrose and fructose may be added within limits. The draft removes that allowance for the youngest infants.
• Early exposure to added sugar can shape a lifelong taste for sweet food, which is a risk factor for obesity.
• The rule supports the World Health Organization's advice of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and sits beside the organisation's new guidelines on child obesity.

The Health Minister launched JOSH teams, the Joint Squad for Health, under the TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan in October 2026 to find tuberculosis cases that the health system has missed.

• Each team has five National Cadet Corps cadets and five MY Bharat volunteers under a Class I officer. They go door to door in 55 districts across 11 States and Union Territories.
• The Ministries of Health, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Defence run the programme together.
• About 68,000 panchayats earned TB Mukt recognition in 2026, which a panchayat gets by meeting targets on case finding, treatment and nutrition support.

The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions notified regulations in October 2026 under its Act of 2021 for registering professionals and assessing the institutions that train them.

• The Registration of Allied and Healthcare Professionals Regulations, 2026 set up a system to register and verify professionals such as laboratory technicians, radiographers, physiotherapists and optometrists. Before the 2021 Act they had no national regulator.
• Autonomous boards under the State councils will handle education standards, the assessment and rating of institutions, and ethics and registration. Where a State has no working council, a Central Assessment Committee does the job.
• A competency based curriculum for the diploma in medical radiology and imaging technology was notified with the regulations.

After industrial dyes were found in chutney, Uttar Pradesh's Food Safety and Drug Administration issued guidelines on food colours in October 2026.

• No colour may be added to chutneys, to cooked foods such as dal, vegetables and biryani, or to milk, spices, flour, honey and infant food. Vendors are told to use tomatoes, beetroot, coriander and mint instead.
• Non food colours are banned, above all Rhodamine B, a textile and paper dye used to redden cotton candy, ice lollies, tikka, kebabs and fried fish. Metanil Yellow, Malachite Green, Auramine and Sudan dyes are on the same list.
• Vendors must weigh the permitted colours on a digital scale and keep purchase records.
• Violations attract penalties under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, from fines for sub standard or misbranded food to life imprisonment where unsafe food causes death.

The World Health Organization issued its first guidelines on obesity in children and adolescents in October 2026. They put diet, exercise and behaviour change first and keep medicines and surgery for older children who have tried that and failed.

• For children aged 0 to 9: no drugs, no bariatric surgery and no weight loss devices.
• For ages 10 to 19: approved drugs may be considered only if a supervised lifestyle programme fails. Surgery may be considered for severe obesity under strict conditions.
• About 70 million children aged 5 to 9 and 100 million adolescents were obese in 2024. Obesity among 5 to 19 year olds rose from 2 per cent in 1990 to 8 per cent in 2024.
• The organisation allowed GLP-1 drugs such as semaglutide for adult obesity in December 2025. The child guidelines draw the line that the adult decision did not.