Category — Food Processing

Returning Chinese expats, called sea turtles, have helped in the transformation of that Shanghai, Beijing, Shen-zhen and much of the country. We are now seeing evidence of similar threads with returning Indians.

New York educated engineer Gyanesh Pandey, returned to India after spending years with International Rectifier, a company that makes power chips. He and three friends with similar backgrounds, founded Husk Power Systems a company that has installed  65 small power units that serve a total of 30,000 rural households in the eastern state of Bihar. The company, partly funded by Silicon-Valley venture capitalist Draper Fisher Jurvetson, is currently installing new systems at the rate of two to three each week.

The technology developed by Pandey uses the waste husk from locally grown rice as the fuel. Rice Husk, an amorphous and low density fuel produces a gas with high tar content and was historically used in dual fuel systems where diesel was the primary input. Much of rural India is off the power grid; lighting and power to charge cell phones is provided by diesel generators.

Applying the idea of appropriate innovation to India, where labor is cheap, Pandey hypothesized that while dirty gas can clog the engine, if the engine is cleaned before the clog begins to hamper its operation seriously, you can build a sustainable product. They got their gasifier fabricated at a local workshop, procured a local CNG (compressed natural gas) engine from a small supplier and modified it to make their prototype.

According to an item this week on the New York Times website, “The company expects to have 200 systems by the end of 2011, each serving a village or a small village cluster. Its plan is to ramp that up significantly, with the goal of having 2,014 units serving millions of clients by the end of 2014.”

The India Expert does not know if Husk Power will transform rural India. But there are a thousand such innovators hard at work across India today and some of their innovations will transform not only India but parts of the developed world as well. Expect some impact in five years and significant impact by 2020.  You read it here first!

Nestle India is allying with National Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol (NDOC) Foundation to study the specifics and patterns of diabetes prevalence in the country. Dr Anoop Misra, Director, department of diabetes and metabolic diseases, Fortis Hospitals will lead the research.   (Last year I visited Dr. Misra and reviewed some of his great work for diabetes awareness in India).

According to news reports, the MoU with Nestle revolves around two pillars, one on increasing nutritional awareness on dietary modification needed to prevent and manage diabetes and secondly, around research around the disease in the Indian landscape.

Diabetes is a huge problem in India due to genetic predisposition. Increasing sedentary lifestyles, inappropriate diets are causing a rise in the incidence of the disease. At the same time, affluence is increasing the number of patients who can access treatment and diagnosis.

Swiss food and consumer goods giant Nestlé will open a research and development center in Manesar, Haryana, south of India’s capital city, where it will use local ingredients and spices, as well as low-cost Indian research and engineering to make products for India as well as other countries.

According to the New York Times, Nestlé will focus on making nutritionally enhanced foods for people with lower incomes, said Klaus Zimmermann, senior vice president and head of research and development. The $50 million facility will open by 2012.  Click here to see Nestle management on CNBC television talking about their plans.

India’s high rate of inflation is expected to reduce with the recent rainfall in what is turning out to be a good monsoon season.

India’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, made a statement addressing a recent National Development Council (NDC) meeting, citing a bit more optimism about the inflation than projected by his advisory council’s statistics shared earlier this year. Dr. Singh said the high inflation is due to wholesale prices which are expected to come down soon. He noted that forecast conditions for continued good rains through August are sure signs that an economic upswing will take place in the agricultural sector.

To stem inflation, the Reserve Bank of India raised interest rates up to 5.75 percent on short-term loans to commercial banks in the continuing struggle against inflation.  The RBI predicts economic growth will now be at 8.5 percent, up a half percentage from the 8 percent April forecast. The inflation prediction for the year-ending March 2011 raised from 5.5 to 6 percent.

Furthermore, RBI Governor Divvuri Subbaro recently stated he would review the costs for borrowing every six weeks, a change form the previous one review per quarter.

The economic forecast comes in much closer to the goals set forth in the country’s 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12), according to Singh.

For executives in the west tracking development in India there are two points to note

• India’s growth must be taken seriously (who else is growing in 2010 to the point that they have to worry about inflation).
• While the current government enjoys a comfortable majority, its response to rising prices, could determine its fate in the next elections. Other important policies may be distracted or delayed while officials struggle with food prices rise. (Food is a much bigger part of the average Indian’s budget, compared to an American or European).