New Delhi, Feb 27 : Two-time Olympic medallist shuttler PV Sindhu pledged to reduce oil from her daily routine to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'fight against obesity' campaign. She further nominated legendary batters Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra to join the movement.

Sindhu was nominated by double Olympic bronze medallist shooter Manu Bhaker and passed the baton ahead to 10 people including Sachin, Virat, Neeraj, veteran sports stars -- Anju Bobby George, Sania Mirza, Mary Kom, Gagan Narang, Viren Rasquinha -- and Telugu cinema actors Mahesh Babu and Chiranjeevi Konidela.

Taking to X, Sindhu wrote, "Thank you, the lovely @realmanubhaker and the ever-inspiring @anandmahindra ji, for nominating me! Looks like it's time to have the talk with my samosas and pakoras'it's not you, it's me. Less oil, more toil for a healthier Bharat!

"I'm passing the baton to these incredible champions to nominate the next set of people," she added.

Earlier, Nau and Tokyo Olympic silver medallist weightlifter Mirabai Chanu joined the fight against obesity and further nominated 10 people each to spread awareness for the cause.

During an address in the 119th Episode of 'Mann Ki Baat', PM Modi discussed rising cases of obesity and said, "To become a fit and healthy nation, we will certainly have to deal with the problem of obesity. According to a study, one in every eight people today is troubled by the problem of obesity.

"Cases of obesity have doubled in the past years, but, what is even more worrying is that the problem of obesity has increased fourfold even among children. WHO data shows that in 2022, about 250 crore people around the world were overweight; that is, they had more weight than required."

"We can together deal with this challenge with minor efforts. For example, one method I suggested was 'reducing the consumption of edible oil by ten per cent'. Decide that you will use 10 per cent less oil every month. You can decide that while buying oil for cooking, you will buy 10 per cent less oil. This will be an important step towards reducing obesity," he added.

/IANS