Aims/hypothesisEvaluation of the association of 31 common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with fasting glucose, fasting insulin, HOMA-beta cell function (HOMA-β), HOMA-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and type 2 diabetes in the Indian population.MethodsWe genotyped 3,089 sib pairs recruited in the Indian Migration Study from four cities in India (Lucknow, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Bangalore) for 31 SNPs in 24 genes previously associated with type 2 diabetes in European populations. We conducted within-sib-pair analysis for type 2 diabetes and its related quantitative traits.ResultsThe risk-allele frequencies of all the SNPs were comparable with those reported in western populations. We demonstrated significant associations of CXCR4 (rs932206), CDKAL1 (rs7756992) and TCF7L2 (rs7903146, rs12255372) with fasting glucose, with β values of 0.007 (p = 0.05), 0.01 (p = 0.01), 0.007 (p = 0.05), 0.01 (p = 0.003) and 0.08 (p = 0.01), respectively. Variants in NOTCH2 (rs10923931), TCF-2 (also known as HNF1B) (rs757210), ADAM30 (rs2641348) and CDKN2A/B (rs10811661) significantly predicted fasting insulin, with β values of −0.06 (p = 0.04), 0.05 (p = 0.05), −0.08 (p = 0.01) and −0.08 (p = 0.02), respectively. For HOMA-IR, we detected associations with TCF-2, ADAM30 and CDKN2A/B, with β values of 0.05 (p = 0.04), −0.07 (p = 0.03) and −0.08 (p = 0.02), respectively. We also found significant associations of ADAM30 (β = −0.05; p = 0.01) and CDKN2A/B (β = −0.05; p = 0.03) with HOMA-β. THADA variant (rs7578597) was associated with type 2 diabetes (OR 1.5; 95% CI 1.04, 2.22; p = 0.03).Conclusions/interpretationWe validated the association of seven established loci with intermediate traits related to type 2 diabetes in an Indian population using a design resistant to population stratification.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00125-011-2355-6) contains peer-reviewed but unedited supplementary material, which is available to authorised users.