New Delhi, Aug. 26 -- India is set to frame its first-ever growth and development standards for children, with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) launching a study in Delhi, Pune, and Bengaluru to confront the recent surge in childhood obesity, as also the malnutrition issue.

The initiative, called UNNATI (Upgrading Norms for Nutrition, Growth, and Development Assessment of Indian Children), will track the physical and developmental milestones of healthy children to build India-specific benchmarks.

Moving away from the World Health Organization (WHO) charts designed for Western populations, the new standards will give doctors and parents more accurate tools to identify and address the dual challenge of malnutrition and obesit...