Biovalley Incubation Council has launched a ‘Nutrify India’ campaign to promote Visakhapatnam as the ‘nutraceutical capital of India’.
Nutrition products from India, despite being the source of several ingredients exported to the United States, Europe and other overseas markets, account for just US$200 million whereas the estimated global trade has been put at $80 billion.
The campaign, in its first phase, will have a session in New Delhi next month and subsequently in other cities, which will culminate in the ‘Nutrify India Summit’ in the city in June. The summit will be organised in collaboration with the Nutraingredients-Asia in which global heads of several nutrition product manufacturing firms will take part.
“The initiative is significant as it signals launching of a mission to encourage innovation to produce more nutritious products indigenously,” K.V. Ram Babu, Managing Director of Hyderabad-based Pulse Pharmaceuticals told The Hindu .
“We are determined to achieve a bigger vision to make Vizag the nutraceutical capital of India,” said Biovalley CEO Amit Srivastava.
Explaining about the objective at AP MedTech Zone, he said with India’s mission to be USD 10 trillion dollar economy by 2030, there is an immense load expected on the population to deliver to reach to the visionary numbers. This is in turn expected to show up on medical bills as currently 640 million Indians are calorific sufficient but malnourished, while 340 million are acutely malnourished. Any stress on this population will trigger a chain of stress leading to lifestyle diseases.
Biovalley is supported by Department of Biotechnology and Niti Aayog to create the required ecosystem and nurture hubs for nutraceuticals.
It has the vision to become India’s largest startup incubation hub for nutraceuticals. A trade delegation led by British Deputy High Commissioner Andrew Fleming attended the maiden meeting of ‘Nutrify India’ campaign stakeholders.
Published - February 07, 2020 12:25 am IST