May wanna consider the Philippines or Vietnam, the average heights there are around 5"4, and both countries are beautiful.
Average height doesn't mean much in India. India is a highly unequal country.
The Uppercaste/ashraf are tall. Lowercaste/ajlaf are short.
People in cities are average 5 foot 9 to 10.
People in tier 3 cities or villages might be 5 foot 1 to 2.
There's a gigantic difference.
Look at Parihar. The guy is 6'3. Why? Because he's a rajput. One of the most superior castes of Hindu society. Just below the Brahmins. Had he been an ansari Muslim he would be 5 foot 1 or 2 at max. Not even exaggerating.
So.average doesnt mean much in India. Average income is 10 thousand per Month here and Im telling you even 70-80 thousand a month is peanuts. You won't be able to send your children to a private english medium school. At least 2 lac a month is needed for a normal humane lifestyle.
This level of inequality is not there in the US. Or China or Japan or anywhere in the world.
So the measure of central tendency where you would try to take the average(mean) as the representative number is meaningless. You try to correct the extreme value effect by taking median and it would be just as useless. I'd say there are 5-6 stratas of height depending on outside genes and income level. Malnutrition certainly is bad for growth. Exactly why Bengalis are slightly shorter than the rajasthanis or punjabis