The work in the Clinical Division focuses on important areas of public health nutrition
including maternal and child nutrition, anemia in the vulnerable groups, developmental
origins of health and disease, vitamin D nutrition as well as body composition and
osteoporosis. Additionally, some of the recent work also examines upstream determinants of
nutrition including agriculture and food environment along with impact assessment of small
scale agricultural interventions for improving nutritional status of women and children.
One of the noteworthy ongoing studies include an ICMR task force study which is a large
cluster randomized trial to evaluate impact of ‘screen and treat’ approach for anemia
reduction in villages around Hyderabad which is expected to provide valuable information for
the anemia control program in the country. Another significant achievement is a partnership
with 18 institutes on an interdisciplinary research project titled ‘Action against Stunting
Hub’ (funded by the UK Research Innovation) which aims to transform the current research
landscape on child stunting. This multi-country project to be undertaken in India, Indonesia
and Senegal would examine the relationship between the biological, social, environmental and
behavioural drivers of stunting in order to develop effective interventions. Currently, 4
research scholars are pursuing their PhD on different public health nutrition projects in
the division.