Our News Bureau – Mumbai
Nutra India Summit 2012 featuring conferences, which showcased nutraceuticals, functional foods, dietary supplements and ingredients and the NuFFooDs — The health & Food Expo was inaugurated by Hans Raj Bhardwaj, Governor of Karnataka. The focal theme for this year’s summit was Nutraceuticals & Nutritionals: Improving the Quality of Life & Lifestyle.
The event had international conferences, NuFFooDS: The Health & Food Show, Highlight Lectures: Morning Mantra, CEO summit, dieticians and nutritionists forum, poster session ‘Walkway of Discovery’, Nutra Awards, buyer-seller meet, workshops and seminars.
The event was organised by CSIR, CFTRI & IUFoST & MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications. Karnataka hosted the 7th edition of Nutra India Summit.
Bhardwaj inaugurated the event by lighting the traditional lamp followed by Professor Samir K Bramachari, Secretary, DSIR, Government of India, Director General, CSIR; Raghuveer Kini, Additional Executive Director, Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil); MN Vidyashankar, IAS – Principal Secretary, Department of IT, Biotechnology and S&T & e-Governance, Government of Karnataka; Dr V Prakash – Distinguished Scientist of CSIR-INDIA, President, Nutrition Society of India, Chairman, Nutra India Summit; Dr Pingfan Rao, President, Elect – IUFoST VP, CIFST, China, Professor & Director, Institute of Biotechnology, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou and Jagdish Patankar – General Secretary, Nutra India Summit, Managing Director, MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications. The programme document was released by Bhardwaj.
An industry report from Frost and Sullivan was released by Bhardwaj and Bramachari.
The conference had 14 sessions with 70 speakers who addressed areas such as functional foods, dietary supplements and novel ingredients for better lifestyle management, emerging consumer trends & behaviour patterns, driving market dynamics, regulatory issues, specialty areas of nutraceuticals and nutritionals, ayurceuticals, prevention and disease delaying through nutraceuticals & nutritionals, a dieticians and nutritionists forum prenatal to pediatrics. The conferences were attended by 600 delegates from more than 22 countries.
The event saw significant international participation from countries such as Australia, Belgium, China, Dubai, Germany, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, the UK, the US and SAARC nations.
Companies such as Herbalife International India, British Biologicals, Solae Company India, Geltec Innovative Healthcare, Mead Johnson Nutrition, Hindustan Unilever, OmniActive Health Technologies, Natural Remedies, BioCare, Ayurpark Healthcare, Kelloggs India, Avestagen, Abbott Nutrition International, Yakult Danone India, Enhance Proteins, Naturex France, 4life Research US, NSF participated in the event.
The Lifetime achievement award was presented to Dr RA Mashelkar – National Research Professor and President, Global Research Alliance.
In his inaugural speech Bhardwaj said, “The world is suffering from malnutrition and in India, the rural sector is being the most affected. I have had a couple of meeting with Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in which I have spoken to him about the nutrition in India. In fact he said the no single person can build a nation, the nation has to build by itself. Hence, we need to have a nutritionally fit population.”
Further he said, “We need to focus on the production and use of herbal and ayurvedic medicines in India, since it is the native of most of the medicinal crops and herbs.”
The event saw significant international participation from countries such as Australia, Belgium, China, Dubai, Germany, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, the UK, the US and SAARC nations. The conferences were attended by 600 delegates from more than 22 countries.
He suggested the pharmaceutical industries in India should not only encourage the practice of exporting their products and out of the income a minimum of 40 per cent can be directed towards R&D, which means that the country has been developed by its own people without external funding for R&D. Better R&D in-turn will eradicate the problems rising due to malnutrition and prevent us from getting indebted to other nations. This can be the solution for eradication of malnutrition as well as having a healthy rural population. He emphasised that relationship of India and China’s salvation lies in staying together because of the similarities in cultural and traditional medicine knowledge. Together India and China can do wonders.
Lupin Pharma was praised by him for the production of best drugs against tuberculosis which are used worldwide and are affordable.
He concluded by quoting, “Every tear from every eye should be wiped rather than few tears from few eyes.”
Bramachari said, “Companies such as Dabur, Himalaya, Baidyanath etc. are playing a pivotal role in popularising nutraceuticals in India. One of the primary reasons behind promotion of neutaceutics is cost of drug discovery. This is huge, coming to $3-11 billion, making it impossible to have drugs for common diseases. This is not affordable for developing countries like India and Africa.”
Bramachari pointed out that there are few flaws in western technologies and threw light on the importance of traditional Indian medicine which actually cures the diseases by re-establishing homeostasis.
Giving a glimpse of the future he said that there will be no more chemical gulping (pharmaceutical drugs) as nutritional products will act as the future remedies.
He explained that 12th plan follows the development of ragi and such crops, to generate public wellness. Since above 42 per cent of the children suffer from malnutrition we should not think about making only money, it is more important to creating health. He said that a community should be formed on nutraceuticals and nutragenomics and said drugs of tomorrow should be food. He also put forward some developmental strategies following which we can promote health and wellness among the masses. Such as — serving foods and drinks in hotels and restaurants should be according to the health conditions of the consumer.
V Prakash said, “The success of the summit in recent past is attributed to the several organisations and especially CSIR has a major role in organising the summit. The importance of nutrition is felt by ‘man’ right from the moment he is born. The first thing the child sees in his mother is nutrition, once he grows, he depends on nutraceuticals and then ayurceuticals.
Science and technology is a dominating field and such summits and conferences is a wonderful way of sharing the knowledge at a international level and connecting which eventually will give confidence to the producers (pharmaceutical companies) and the consumers (common man).
He further emphasised on following the 12th plan in-order to curtail malnutrition in developing countries.
He closed his speech with a statement, “Let the world be healthy, Let the world be well, and ensure that no child sleeps hungry.”
Rao congratulated the organisers and the authorities for putting together this summit. He said, India and China together can combat the problem of malnutrition by sharing the scientific and technological viewpoints. Some of the biggest challenge faced by the world is the climate and another is feeding the world. He categorised human beings under the most sensitive individual. He further said that nutrifood and its impact on healthcare is presently the ultimate goal of the world. He also wished success to the Summit.
Vidyashankar gave a glimpse of how life and nature were related in the past and how is it at present. He also quoted “Let food be your medicine not medicine be your food.” He revealed that about two years ago 128 countries participated in promoting nutritional practices and about trillion US dollars were spent on nutrition. He also said that from a survey, diet was the most important factor on health than heredity. Praised the progress towards nutraceuticals and said the next Google in nutraceuticals will be born in Bangalore. He also put forth the idea of making Bangalore as a home for the Nutra Summit and focused on organising more such events where the nutritionists and dieticians can come in contact with the industries. He concluded his speech with “Health is a wealth.”
Kini emphasised the use of traditional medicine in rural and developing countries as the only source of the health. He further said that total drug and pharmaceutical export was $10.3 billion last year, which is only 1.2 per cent when compared with ayuvedic sector. He encouraged and wished success to many countries which are working towards herbal and ayurveda.
He highlighted the presence of about 40 foreign delegates from 16 different countries and about 70—80 Indian companies who have registered for this interaction. On behalf of Pharmexcil, he promised that his organisation will put all the possible efforts to promote neutraceutics.
Patankar praised CSIR and V Prakash for guiding them and making this summit a success. He emphasised on the development of Open Source Drug Developmental Programme in neutraceuticals, which will be a break through and will reduce the cost and increase the production of all the herbal foods and medicines. He even praised the work of Rao for his international contribution towards the development of neutraceuticals and neutragenomics.
He also mentioned that Pharmexcil joined for the first time, due to which they have 39 international buyers from 16 countries.