National Nutrition Week
Health And Nutrition
Since 1982, the National Nutrition Week in India is celebrated from September 1 to September 7. It aims to create awareness on the importance of nutrition and a well-balanced diet for the human body.
Mental and physical well-being, including the consumption of nutrition-rich food, is key for a happy life.
Various cultures of India and their rich diversity is reflected in Indian culinary delicacies. The 72-course Wazwan platter of Kashmir, to Irumba of Manipur, to the famous Hyderabadi dum biryani, to vada paav in Mumbai, to thepla in Gujarat, to avial in Kerala, to pongal in Tamil Nadu – there are delicacies galore across every village, town, and city of India.
Rich cultural traditions, concepts of food science, and interstate migration have enriched India’s food diversity over the years. Such food leaves one’s tummy and the taste buds happy.
India has 36 entities (28 states and 8 federally administered territories), and each one has a different food culture. That is the richness of India! However, outside of India, this fact is not well known. Lack of this knowledge results in an incomplete understanding of not just India’s diversity, but also of the immense treasure trove on information on nutrition and well-being. To understand how Indian food is much more beyond lentils, rice, and spices, you should watch this video which is short and will take less than 2 minutes of your time:
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Indian Culture And The Importance of Food
In India, food is key to the overall development of the mind and body. Food is an integral part of Indian culture. As per Ayurveda philosophy, you are what you eat.
Best practices for eating food –one’s posture while sitting for a meal, using hands to eat, cooking in clay pots, eating in moderation, the tableware one eats in, to the combination of food items being consumed – are important to Indians. In some areas, brass or silver tableware is used for serving and consuming food. In Kerala, for example, on social occasions, food is eaten on plantain leaves.
India is beyond the stereotypes used to define it. Test your knowledge of India here.
Cooking food involves a proper blend of various grains, lentils, spices, and condiments. Indians also use nuts, wild plants, herbs, seeds and fruits in their cuisines. Besides the main meal, curd, pickle, chutney, and Indian desserts also play an important role in our diet.
For you to improve your knowledge on India, it is important to get a holistic understanding of this diverse land. We bring to you e-learning courses on Indian business, culture, policies and on Hinduism. To learn about the diverse and vibrant Indian culture, and India’s economy, enroll for our courses here.
COVID-19: Nutrition And Well Being
In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, nutrition and well-being are more important now. With restricted access to outdoor and physical activities, it is difficult to manage one’s mental and physical well-being. However, it is also essential to take small steps towards good health and well-being. We elaborate 5 simple steps to improve health and nutrition.
1. Set A Routine
Routines help manage time well. Chalk out time for work, sleep, eating, preparing meals, and activities like reading and exercising.
2. Have Healthy Meals
With most buying activity happening online now, one may be tempted to have meals delivered at their doorstep. But, eating healthy has two-fold advantages. One can cut out junk and unhealthy food – unhealthy sugars, fats, and carbs. Cooking meals helps one take time off work and online activities and spend some time cooking what they prefer.
3. Choose Slow Food Instead of Fast Food
Slow-cooked food retains the nutrients and is more flavourful than fast-cooked food. It is good for the development of the mind and the body and is healthy. A leading NGO provides slow-cooked mid-day meals to students in Indian public schools. They are doing this to ensure that the students continue with their schooling. Yes, lack of access to food affects education and vice versa. Watch how they are ensuring education for 1.7 million students every day.
Liked the video? Make sure you check out our interesting courses across subject areas. SLX Learning is an online learning hub based in Switzerland educating learners around the world. We are rooted in the concept of sustainability. You can sign up for our courses here.
4. Maintain Hygiene
Nutrition and hygiene go together for health and wellness. Ensure you clean your hands with a sanitizer or soap frequently and avoid touching your face repeatedly. Sanitize your house and workstation frequently. Given how zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 are on a rise, it is essential to be wary of unclean surroundings and practice personal hygiene.
While touchless greetings are in place in most of the world only after the pandemic hit us globally, it has been the norm in India since forever. This video tells you that.
If you liked the video above, we are certain that you will love our blended learning courses that are tailored for different types of learners. Enroll for our courses on India today!
5. Don’t Waste Food
The discussion on food is incomplete without a discussion on food wastage. The UN estimates that globally, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year. On the other hand, globally, 1.9 billion people fail to find access to regular and healthy meals thus are undernourished or malnourished.
Even across India, tonnes of excess food gets wasted or are lost in harvesting, transport, processing, or storage. This happens while 194 million people in Indian go hungry every year.
To know how food insecurity goes beyond food production, watch this video.
Food insecurity is linked to poverty, and in turn to undernourishment, wasting, and stunting in children. In the 2019 Global Hunger Index, India ranked fell to 102 out of 117 countries – the lowest in South Asian countries.
While the number of undernourished people has fallen across the millennium in India, there is a need to reduce food wastage and produce food sustainably.
70% of the world’s freshwater is spent on agriculture. Besides, by 2050, we will have to feed 9 billion people, which will need more water and more land. This calls for reducing food wastage on a personal front, and to grow food sustainably.
References:
Theories and Principles of Sustainability: Looking Back in Time
Doing Business in India: Are Indians Open to Risk?
COVID-19 has unleashed havoc on the world economies forcing companies to down their shutters, creating job crises, and leaving new entrepreneurs in a fix. The uncertainty has left many – small, mid, and large – businesses struggling to survive and with bad loans.
This comes a year after India was riding a high wave in entrepreneurial activity. As per a Latona’s report from 2019, India ranked second, next only to Chile, on a list as that ranked countries that are most sought-after for doing business.
While the pandemic has unleashed many challenges for businesses, it has also thrown open avenues for innovation. Many businesses used their creativity to respond to demand and need to be brought about by the pandemic.
Indian companies have also responded with agility. From manufacturing and selling face masks and sanitizers, to selling groceries and essentials, to improving sales of online courses, companies have found ways to stay relevant and cater to public need during these testing times. Can this prove to be India’s opportunity to shed its image of being a country with risk-averse people?
SLX and its community Mastering India weave real-life experiences that enable people to learn about the real India – the culture, how local businesses work and scale-up, the ease of doing business, travel, food, and the way of life. Such experiences help people shed their stereotypes about India. They unlearn and learn about the new India that is growing every minute offering vast opportunities for doing business in India.
Despite being on a track of rapid development, India is stereotyped as an under-developed country. The huge strides that India has taken in the last few decades have opened newer avenues for the growth of businesses in India.
The best way to learn about India and its unwavering entrepreneurial spirit is by visiting the country. The annual Bootcamp by SLX Learning is a study tour tailored just to do that – get people to see India through their own eyes. Our Bootcamp program for 2020 has been stalled because of COVID-19, but learning about India doesn’t need to stop. Our community, Mastering India, brings to you glimpses from India so you learn more about this emerging market. Watch our videos to experience our study tour in India.
This video, for example, gives you a glimpse of what Swiss students learned about entrepreneurship in India and the outlook of Indians. Their opinions were shaped after they spent two weeks in an SLX Bootcamp in the heart of India’s business hubs – Mumbai and Bengaluru.
From Failure to Growth
In the words of Vikram Gupta, founder of IvyCap Ventures, India sees a 90-97% failure rate in business ventures but people who fail, come back with newer ideas and experience. “Failure doesn’t necessarily happen because of the demand-supply gap but also issues in leadership skills and team management. Many failures have led to the next phase success because people gain experience and learn what not to do,” says Vikram.
Mastering India has a repository of insights from India’s entrepreneurs like Vikram Gupta, who is famous in India and abroad alike. Visit our Mastering India hub to know more about doing business in India.
Policies and Culture in India
Talking about how government policies have helped businesses in India in the last few years, Vikram says, “In India, the fear of failure boils down to a lack of funding. However, things have been picking up in the last two-three years with the government allocating money,” he says. The boom in digital infrastructure and vast opportunities across sectors have helped enable a more favorable environment for setting up businesses.
However, like all cultures and countries, India’s image is also burdened with preconceived notions that people have about the country. You may want to watch our video on the Punctuality myth.
India has to date produced 61 unicorns – startups with a valuation of $1 billion – of which 40 are headquartered in the USA and 21 are businesses based in India.
We interviewed one of India’s top influencers Mohandas Pai, who says, “India, along with China, will have 30-35% of the global GDP share by 2050. With a median age of 28, India has one of the youngest populations across the globe. Combine the population factor combined with education and technology – we have a booming IT industry.” Watch more of the video here.
Indian Trade – A History
Much before the colonial rule pillaged India of its riches and wealth – an estimated amount of $45 trillion – it had a thriving trade with South East Asia and the Arabs. Spices and fabrics from India accounted for most of India’s maritime trade in those days. Since this was much before routes like Silk Route came into being, trade was done by Indian sea merchants. A 200-year-old Tamil literature in India says that merchants went far and wide to Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and brought back Roman coins and Roman wine.
After Independence from the British Rule, India was put on a path of poverty with its riches gone. Today’s India is growing and is in the middle of a digital revolution.
Diversity Translates to Opportunities
India is driving economic growth with innovation in models that suit different echelons of the Indian population. India is a great incubator space for ideas and there is a potential to emulate them globally.
Narayana Healthcare, a leading healthcare provider in India, had helped launch micro health insurance with the government of Karnataka for underprivileged farmers. Over a million poor farmers have benefited from surgeries and heart operations under the scheme. All this has been done with individual contributions from the farmer community, and not under charity.
You can watch our interview with the man who started Narayana Healthcare, Dr. Devi Shetty, also known as the Henry Ford of cardiac surgery to get a better idea.
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India offers a huge marketplace for growth of such ideas across sectors, and being a developing country, it offers more scope for doing businesses than a developed country would offer.
No literature can do justice in explaining India and the wide platter of opportunities it offers. To traverse through the vast population and diverse nature of India, Mastering India has customized courses on business opportunities, entrepreneurship, and growth in India, food, culture, and travel in India. All you would need to do is Sign up for our courses here to learn about India, and how you can take your business to the next level.
References
- Published in Blogs
Collaborative India – Your Next Expansion Destination!
The advancements in technology over the recent decades have vehemently contributed to creating a globally interconnected hub. Thanks to the internet, propagation of news and information happens blazingly fast. Is this interconnectedness the precursor to a global nation, currency, and workforce? Well, the global workforce potential has been leveraged for decades now and many multi-nationals expand internationally to make the most of the talent and expertise of humans from across the globe. And India is one such hub!
Companies like Google, Thales, Amazon, Microsoft, HP, Rolls Royce, Airbus, Nokia, among others (it’s a huge list!) have established themselves in India to overcome the challenges of finding the right talents for propelling advancement and innovation. Every day, millions of Indians actively contribute to the betterment of the world: IT, R&D, finance and support functions are all catered for at global scale in locations like Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, among others.
Watch: Doing Business in Modern India
What are businesses and organizations missing out on by not collaborating with India?
Expertise
With the tech talent gap widening each year, as testified by ardent endeavors from education ministries of western countries to encourage youths into the scientific stream, investing in India helps respond to the growing need of technological experts.
Costs
The lower costs of running a business in India translates into more capital available to enhance processes beneficial to the success of the organization in the long run.
Economic Stability
The exponential economic growth seen in India over the last few years has been largely facilitated by a strong democracy, key structural reforms, an increase in government investment and private consumption.
Business Reforms
To attract foreign investments, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) restrictions have been considerably relaxed in the country. This results in India being ranked to the 63rd position on the World’s Bank Doing Business 2020 study. World Bank’s Country Director in India, Junaid Ahmad, praised India’s leadership and decisive actions to facilitate foreign investments despite being a large and complex economy.
Consumer Market
India’s large and healthy middle class makes it an interesting consumer market and ranks 3rd out of 141 economies for market size according to the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Index.
The right atmosphere for conducting business is available in India. Welcoming of foreigners and acceptance of a diversified culture can be traced back to its roots and is very much a part of Indian ethos even today. This trait of openness and acceptance of global culture is what makes India hospitable to international business ventures.
Language
English is widely spoken and is mostly the medium for business in India. A great majority of professionals are educated in English medium which sets the rhythm for seamless communication.
Accessibility
With thirty-four international airports and thirteen major ports, India is within easy reach globally.
Technology
As of 2018, twenty submarine internet cables link India digitally to the rest of the world, which effectively connect offices scattered across the globe in real-time.
With all the right elements already in place, businesses stand to benefit hugely from the offerings available in India. To facilitate their transition to Indian soil, foreign companies can build up on the resources available on masteringindia.org
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Doing Business in India Learning Plan
India is not a country but a sub-continent. Its recent economic growth has made it one of the World’s favorite destinations for Foreign Direct Investment. Beyond it borders, Indians continue to play an important role as a source of high quality talent, be it in the technology sector, or in academia or other areas of business. Understanding how to do business in India, and perhaps more importantly the Indian diaspora, has never been more important.
Our learning plan allows you to:
- Analyze the global context for emerging market
- Learn to interpret global trends via terms like GDP and other econometrics
- Understand why and how quickly emerging markets are reshaping the global economic landscape
Update yourself on facts about India. Verify how much do you really know or not know about India. Analyze why India is called a land of contrasts. Learn the different aspects about doing business in India through her natural and demographic resources. Appreciate the influence of an ancient civilization and culture before achieving success in business with an emerging market. Who are Indians? What are the most important aspects of Indian culture? How does the multiculturalism of the land relate to doing business in India?
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