Science 14 November 2026

World Diabetes Day – insulin's discoverer and India's burden

Five key points

1. The day: created in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization; it became an official United Nations day through UN General Assembly resolution 61/225 of 20 December 2006, and has been marked as a UN day since 2007. Its logo is the blue circle.
2. The discovery: Frederick Banting (born 14 November 1891) and Charles Best isolated insulin at the University of Toronto in 1921; the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Banting and J.J.R. Macleod. Insulin is a hormone made by the beta cells of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas; it lowers blood glucose. Glucagon, from the alpha cells, raises it.
3. Types: Type 1 diabetes – the body makes little or no insulin (autoimmune destruction of beta cells), usually seen in children and young people, needs insulin for life. Type 2 – the body does not use insulin properly (insulin resistance); it is the most common type and is linked to overweight, physical inactivity and unhealthy diet, and can often be prevented or delayed. Gestational diabetes occurs in pregnancy.
4. India's burden: the ICMR–INDIAB national study (published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, June 2023) estimated about 101 million people with diabetes (11.4%) and 136 million with prediabetes (15.3%) in India. The IDF says more than 500 million people worldwide live with diabetes and nearly half of them are undiagnosed – hence the 2026–27 call for early screening and diagnosis.
5. Programme link: India screens people aged 30 and above for diabetes, hypertension and common cancers under the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD), through Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (health and wellness centres). Tamil Nadu angle: in August 2021 the State began 'Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam' (medicine at the people's doorstep), which screens people at home and delivers medicines for diabetes and hypertension.

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Sources: idf.org · www.un.org · www.nobelprize.org