NNWA vs INFS, K11, AAFT, IGMPI and six more nutrition providers: fees and accreditation compared

Every figure below was checked directly against the provider's own official page on 22 August 2026, with a link to the exact page it came from. Course fees and accreditation claims change — a provider can revise a price or add a certification body at any time — so treat this as a snapshot rather than a permanent record, and check the linked page yourself before enrolling anywhere. For the broader question of which category of provider actually suits a given goal, see Indian nutrition certification providers compared; this page focuses narrowly on named providers' own published facts.

What does each provider actually publish?

INFS (Institute of Nutrition and Fitness Sciences)

INFS's comparable flagship is the Diploma in Nutrition, Exercise and Preventive Health. Its own course page states a duration of 51 to 104 weeks — roughly one to two years — at a fee of ₹61,999, delivered online. The same page displays ISO, ACE, NSDC and DIPP marks. INFS also runs a large catalogue of shorter, specific certificates (clinical nutrition, sports nutrition, personal training) priced from under ₹2,000 up to around ₹20,000 each, which is a genuinely wide menu for someone who wants one narrow specialisation rather than a full diploma.

K11 (K11 Academy of Fitness Sciences)

K11's comparable course is the Human Performance Nutrition (HPN) Certification, run over roughly six months across 52 sessions and 153 hours of face-to-face learning, for ₹67,000 with a monthly-instalment option. K11's own page states the certificate carries an "NSQF Level-6 Sports Nutritionist" designation, alongside ICREPs recognition in ten countries, REPS India Approved Training Partner status, NSDC/SPEFL-SC affiliation and a stated "PD:Approval (UK)" grade. K11 states no prior nutrition qualification is required, with a minimum eligibility of 10+2 pass and age 18.

AAFT (via AAFT Online)

AAFT's brand covers more than one product here, and they are worth telling apart. AAFT University of Media and Arts offers an actual UGC-recognised B.Sc in Dietetics and Nutrition degree, billed in instalments totalling roughly ₹4.3 lakh across the programme — a different category of qualification entirely, and not the one comparable to a skill diploma. The comparable product is AAFT Online's Diploma in Nutrition & Wellness: one year, ₹1,40,000, with a "No Cost EMI" option through named lending partners, built from 46 modules across 160-plus lectures and 300-plus learning hours, delivered online with live classes and recorded-session access. Its own page states "NSDC | CII Certified."

IGMPI (Centre for Nutrition and Dietetics Studies)

IGMPI runs several tiers of nutrition qualification through its Centre for Nutrition and Dietetics Studies. The Under Graduate Diploma in Health and Nutrition — the tier open to 10+2 pass-outs, the same eligibility floor as NNWA's Diploma — runs 12 months at ₹1,10,000 in part-time online mode, or ₹1,45,275 in its "Regular" mode, per its own prospectus. A shorter six-month Executive Diploma is priced at ₹67,500. IGMPI is described on its own site as "an Autonomous Body Recognised by Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India" — a real government recognition, but a different kind of standing to a university. Notably, IGMPI's main course-listing pages do not display this fee at all; it only appears inside a separate prospectus document linked from the programme page. IGMPI also offers meaningful fee concessions — 10% for SC/ST/PwD applicants, 5% for OBC/EWS/ex-servicemen, and need-based waivers of up to 30% for strong PG applicants — which is worth knowing if cost is the deciding factor.

Arogyam Institute

Arogyam Institute's comparable course is its 6-Month Diploma in Ayurvedic Diet & Nutrition, delivered entirely online with a mix of live classes and recordings in both Hindi and English, open to beginners. Its own site states accreditation from ISO, CPD (UK), Yoga Alliance (USA) and AICC, plus an NSDC affiliation under the Ministry of Skill India. The fee is not published on the course page itself; the site asks a visitor to submit contact details to receive pricing.

NFNA (National Fitness and Nutrition Academy)

NFNA's comparable course is the Diploma in Applied Nutrition, Food Science and Dietetics (DANFSD): six months, 100-plus hours of classes, with ten certificates issued including a Skill India Certificate, and NSDC grading referenced on its own pages. As with Arogyam, the fee does not appear on the course page, the enrolment page, or the pricing-adjacent pages checked on NFNA's site — all three route a prospective learner to an enquiry form rather than a stated number.

Orane International

Orane's comparable course, listed on its dedicated nutrition.orane.com subdomain, is a six-month Certificate Course in Nutrition priced at ₹55,000, delivered online and in hybrid mode, aimed explicitly at beginners, homemakers and fitness enthusiasts rather than career changers alone. Its own page describes the certificate as "NSDC & Internationally Certified," without naming which international body issues that recognition.

Optimum Wellness Academy

Optimum Wellness Academy's comparable course is its Diploma in Wellness, Nutrition and Fitness Training: a minimum of seven to eight months, delivered online and offline in both English and Hindi, built from 60-plus lectures and 100-plus hours of learning taught, per its own page, by "Doctors & Expert Dieticians." Twenty-one hard-copy certificates are issued across topic modules covering diabetes, PCOS, thyroid, cardiovascular and other specific diet plans. Its own page lists NSDC, Skill India, SPEFL, UDAAN, Fit India and SRLLP as national affiliations, and EUROUKALS, ISO 9001:2015 and a "Global Accreditation Assessment Forum" mark internationally. As with Arogyam and NFNA, no fee is published on the course page; the site collects a visitor's details to send pricing separately.

Institute Nutrition

Institute Nutrition, founded by nutritionist Ryan Fernando and academically led by Dt. Nisha Bajaj, is structured differently from the other nine providers on this page and is worth describing on its own terms rather than forced into the same comparison. Rather than one open-eligibility diploma, its main product is an "INC Annual Membership" priced at ₹28,000 on its own site, aimed at fresh graduates, practising dietitians and people returning to the field after a break — continuing education for people who already have, or are actively building, a nutrition career. Alongside that membership, the site sells standalone, disease-specific short courses such as a PCOS Nutrition Course and a Fatty Liver Reversal Blueprint, each ₹5,999, with no accreditation body named on the pages checked. This is a genuinely different product to a foundational diploma, and it does not fit into the fee-and-duration comparison below for that reason.

Medvarsity

Medvarsity's comparable course, the Certificate in Basic Nutrition, is three months long at ₹17,745, delivered entirely online through streamed content with no downloads, and requires a minimum of 60% on its final assessment to certify. Its own page states accreditation from AHERF (Apollo Hospitals Educational and Research Foundation) and the British Accreditation Council, plus 5 CPD points from CPD Standards UK and ACCME. Critically, its own eligibility line restricts enrolment to registered healthcare professionals — Ayush practitioners, dietitians, nutritionists, MDS, MD/MS/DNB holders, nursing staff, BDS and MBBS graduates — not the open, no-prior-qualification eligibility that NNWA and the other providers above offer. It is the lowest fee on this page, but for a materially smaller and already-qualified audience.

How does NNWA's Diploma compare on fee and duration?

NNWA's Diploma in Nutrition, Dietetics & Public Health runs six months for ₹29,999, with EMI available from ₹4,999 a month. Among the seven providers above that offer a broadly comparable, open-eligibility diploma or certificate with a fee stated somewhere on their own site, NNWA's fee is the lowest: Orane International's ₹55,000, INFS's ₹61,999, K11's ₹67,000, IGMPI's Executive Diploma at ₹67,500 rising to ₹1,10,000–₹1,45,275 for its 12-month Under Graduate Diploma, and AAFT Online's ₹1,40,000 all sit above it. Arogyam, NFNA and Optimum Wellness Academy do not publish a fee at all, so they cannot be placed on this ladder from their own pages. On duration, NNWA's six months matches K11, Arogyam, NFNA and IGMPI's Executive Diploma, and is shorter than Orane's overlapping six months in practice but longer in stated scope, INFS's 51–104 weeks, AAFT's twelve months, IGMPI's Under Graduate Diploma at twelve months, and Optimum Wellness Academy's minimum seven to eight months. Medvarsity's ₹17,745 is lower still, but it is not a like-for-like comparison: that certificate is restricted to people who already hold a registered healthcare qualification, where every other course in this list, including NNWA's, is open to a 10+2 pass-out with no prior qualification. Institute Nutrition does not sell a comparable diploma at all, for the reason set out above.

Why does NNWA state NCrF Level 4 while K11 states NSQF Level 6?

This is the one figure in this comparison that does not favour NNWA on its face, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a footnote. The National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) and National Credit Framework (NCrF) assign a level to a specific qualification based on its content and complexity — no institute sets its own level; the framework does. K11's Level-6 claim is attached to its Human Performance Nutrition certificate specifically, a course built for people who may already hold a nutrition or fitness qualification and want an advanced, narrowly focused sports-nutrition credential. NNWA's Level-4 claim is attached to its Diploma in Nutrition, Dietetics & Public Health specifically — a broad, entry-level foundation open to someone with no prior qualification in the subject at all, 10+2 pass upward. A higher framework level on a narrower, more advanced course and a lower level on a broader, ground-up foundation are not measuring the same thing, so the two numbers are not a like-for-like ranking of which institute is "better" — they describe two different starting points. Anyone weighing this specifically should ask what level of prior knowledge each course actually assumes, not just which number is larger.

Which of these fees is publicly stated, and which isn't?

Six of these ten providers state a fee directly on the page a prospective learner actually lands on: NNWA at ₹29,999, INFS at ₹61,999, K11 at ₹67,000, AAFT Online at ₹1,40,000, Orane International at ₹55,000 and Medvarsity at ₹17,745 all show a number on the course page itself. IGMPI's main "Diploma in Nutrition and Dietetics" listing page states no fee at all — the figure only surfaces inside a separate downloadable prospectus, several links deep. Arogyam Institute, NFNA and Optimum Wellness Academy do not publish a fee anywhere on the pages checked; all three ask a visitor to submit their own contact details first and receive pricing separately. Institute Nutrition publishes its membership fee (₹28,000) and its individual short-course fees (₹5,999 each) openly, though as covered above these are not diploma-equivalent products. That is a real, checkable difference in how easy each provider makes it to know the actual cost before enquiring.

Is NNWA affiliated with a university the way these providers are?

Not quite the same way, and the difference is worth being precise about rather than vague. NNWA's Diploma is affiliated with Medhavi Skills University (MSU), Sikkim — a body established under the Medhavi Skills University, Sikkim Act, 2021, recognised under section 2(f) of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, and approved as an Awarding Body by the National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET). That is a statutory university under a state Act, not merely a certifying or standards body. Among the other providers here, INFS cites ISO, ACE, NSDC and DIPP; K11 cites ICREPs, REPS India, NSDC/SPEFL-SC and a UK "PD:Approval" grade; AAFT Online's diploma cites NSDC and CII; IGMPI describes itself as an autonomous body recognised by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry; Arogyam cites ISO, CPD (UK), Yoga Alliance (USA), AICC and NSDC; NFNA and Optimum Wellness Academy both cite NSDC alongside their own additional marks (SPEFL-SC family bodies, ISO 9001:2015 and others named on their own pages); Medvarsity cites AHERF, the British Accreditation Council and CPD Standards UK; and Institute Nutrition names no accreditation body on the pages checked. All of these are genuine, real-world credentials as published, and several (ICREPs, AHERF/BAC in particular) carry international healthcare-sector recognition NNWA does not claim for itself. What sets MSU apart specifically is that it is a UGC-recognised university, which none of the other diploma-level providers here cite for their comparable course. A skill qualification from any of these providers, including NNWA, is still not a degree, and none of them makes a learner a Registered Dietitian — that requires a university-conferred BSc or MSc in dietetics specifically, a separate pathway none of the diploma-level courses compared here is offering.

Are all ten of these programmes really the same kind of qualification?

No, and treating them as interchangeable would be misleading rather than merely simplified. Eight of the ten — NNWA, INFS, K11, AAFT Online, IGMPI, Arogyam, NFNA, Orane International and Optimum Wellness Academy — are open-eligibility skill diplomas or certificates aimed at someone starting from little or no formal nutrition background, generally accepting a 10+2 pass as the entry point. Medvarsity's Certificate in Basic Nutrition sits in a different category by its own stated eligibility: it is restricted to people who already hold a registered healthcare qualification, which makes it a continuing-education add-on for an existing professional rather than a foundation course for a newcomer. Institute Nutrition sits in a third category again: rather than a single diploma, it sells an annual membership aimed at graduates and practising dietitians plus standalone disease-specific short courses, which functions as ongoing professional development rather than an entry qualification. None of this makes the restricted or continuing-education products worse — they are simply answering a different question than "how do I start a career in nutrition with no prior qualification," which is the question NNWA's Diploma and the other seven skill diplomas above are built to answer.

Do these fees and accreditation claims change over time?

Yes, and that is exactly why every figure above is dated and sourced rather than stated as a settled fact. A provider can raise or discount a fee, add or drop a certifying body, or restructure a course at any time, and third-party listicles and aggregator sites are frequently out of date on exactly these details — one search-aggregator figure checked while researching this page understated AAFT Online's actual published fee by ₹20,000 against what AAFT's own page currently states. Before enrolling anywhere, including with NNWA, check the provider's own current course page rather than a comparison page, however recently dated. NNWA's own current fee and certificate details are on its Diploma in Nutrition course page, its accreditation is set out in full on the affiliation page, and any certificate NNWA has issued can be checked on the verification page.