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To develop new ways to innovate and support food enterprises in the pulse supply chain, the À¦°óSMÉçÇø Centre of for the Convergence of Health and Economics (MCCHE) has launched the Pulse Innovation Platform (PIP)-India in New Delhi on March 9th, 2017.

In the presence of the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, PIP-India became the first national platform of PIP-Global, a worldwide initiative that promotes pulses like lentils and peas as a food source to tackle undernutrition and manage chronic diseases such as diabetes while maintaining profitability.

With 2016 declared as the International Year of Pulses by the United Nations, pulses – given their high amount of fiber, low glycemic index, affordability, and nitrogen fixing properties – are in a unique position to advance food- and farm- based solutions to health and nutritional challenges across the globe.

PIP-India convenes leaders from food processing, marketing, nutrition, public health, and finance sectors. Activities include creating an accelerator at the National Institute for Food Processing Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) to develop food product ideas into market-ready goods. The accelerator will assist entrepreneurs with packaging and labelling as well as help design nutritional profiles to offer health benefits.

Organisations involved in creating PIP-India and working towards a vibrant pulse ecosystem in India include NIFTEM, Tata-Cornell Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative (TCi), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPFI), the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Tata Chemicals Ltd., INCLEN, and the Indian Pulse Growers Association (IPGA).

PIP-India will also help shape government policy in line with the Government of India’s special initiatives for supporting pulse research and farming, innovation, as well as food security, nutrition and health.