Naveen Chander, Co-founder, NuTy Asks FM to Accommodate Budgetary Allocations in Three Important Areas for a Healthier India

India’s has a burgeoning young working population with a median age of 28.4, making the needs of nutrition and health through good quality food the most urgent need of the country. While many in urban India are calorifically sufficient, nearly 70% are nutritionally deficient, which causes several long-term health problems and diseases. The availability of a balanced diet for working adults is of utmost importance to individuals, as it is to the nation.

The critical need for India is for affordable, tasty, nutritional, and hygienic food made accessible to working millennials in an easy and convenient manner so they do not have to make compromises on health due to the type of food they consume daily.

At the same time, India’s food wastage is estimated to be around 67,000 million tonnes every year valued at Rs. 92,000 Crores, which can and must be saved with modern food preserving technologies.

We urge the Hon’ble Finance Minister to accommodate budgetary allocations in three important areas for a healthier India; 

(1) Income Tax rebate for three years for companies helping reduce food wastage using modern food preserving technologies like cold-pasteurization High Pressure Processing (HPP) who can give assurance of extended shelf life of ready-to-eat, cooked meals of upto 4 months or more.

(2) Zero GST bracket for food processing companies that source agri-produce directly from farmers, fishermen and poultry farmers, creating farm-to-table access for agri-produce by eliminating the agricultural middleman.