Not surprisingly, all the noise around overweight mirrors the West. It was researchers in those markets that first found a link between obesity and diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. And it is in the US that the international format of the show Biggest Loser was first aired in America in 2004 and reportedly kick-started a fitness revolution. Rimonabant, too, has been discovered by Europe’s largest drug maker Sanofi-Aventis. Indian companies are merely copying it — legally — by a different process. Sanofi-Aventis, ironically, is awaiting permission from the Indian regulator to launch the original. “We applied last year,” says a company spokesperson. There are reportedly 60 drugs under development for obesity mainly in the West, and if they ever get approved, many will no doubt reach Indian shores.

Indeed, the only thing that obese or overweight Indians needed — and which the West tends to have plenty of — is a mascot for weight loss. Late last year, it found one. Adnan Sami, the Pakistan-born UK-bred pop star who is all the rage with India’s youngsters, came back after a short hiatus to announce he had cut his weight by 90 kg through radical changes in diet, and some serious exercise. Sami’s weight loss has become a hot topic in online discussion boards and blogs. What’s more, he talks about it. “I would like to help others who are obese,” he told a national newspaper in March.

The question is whether all these efforts are good enough to avert the epidemic of obesity that India is careening towards, and safely. That, after all, is the ultimate test.