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To bring back millets and create domestic, and global demand and to provide nutritional food to the people, the Government of India decided to mark the National Year of Millets in 2018. In 2021, India proposed to United Nations for declaring 2023 as the International Year of Millets (IYOM). The proposal of India got support from 72 countries and United Nation's General Assembly (UNGA) declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets
As per Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, India is a major producer of Millets, accounting for 80 per cent of Asia's production and 20 per cent of global production. It had been the major staple food in central India for centuries, but over the years, millets slowly got sidelined from the food basket.
Aim of the International Years of Millet -
According to Food and Agriculture Organisation the aim is to:
a. Elevate awareness about the contribution of millets for food security and nutrition
b. Inspire stakeholders on improving sustainable production and quality of millets
c. Draw focus for enhanced investment in research and development and extension services to achieve the other two aims
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare took the following preparatory steps to mark 2023 as the year of Millets:
- Core committee has been formed
- Consultation on how to promote millets production and supply in the country has been held with different States, Processors, Chefs/ Nutritionists, Farmers
- Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR) has been made a Nodal Institute for keeping track of all the policies, activities and communication
- 6 Task forces have been constituted to ensure on ground implementation
Talking about the benefits of including Millets in your diet, Dr. Raj Bhandari Member National Technical Board of Nutrition and Health, NITI Aayog said, 'Positioning of millets in the form of value added minimally processed products will pave way for Swasth Bharat. The positive attributes of this power packed nutri-cereals will also keep at bay, silent killers like diabetes and hypertension.'
Highlighting the environmental aspect Joanna Kane-Potaka, Executive Director, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) said, 'You may have heard of superfoods; foods that are super nutritious. Millets are this and more, they are basically smart food that is good for you, good for the farmer and good for the planet.
Reiterating the importance of Millets - the super grain, Dr Dayakar Rao of Indian Institute of Millet Research, Hyderabad said, 'Millets can grow in poor quality soil and create a good plan B for food security. With the growing population and the climate change scenario food security may become an issue in the future.'
NDTV in partnership with Luminous has launched an awareness campaign ‘Be A Bijli Donor’ to promote the idea of ‘save power for more power’. The idea is to conserve energy today in order to get more power tomorrow.
We inherently know that saving energy results in low energy bills, but we also need to understand that a unit of energy saved today makes it available for people still living in the dark or facing regular power cuts.
Saving power or conserving energy is about knowing the sources of energy, and areas of wastage and thereby eliminating these through technology and lifestyle changes. For instance, a 100 W (Watt) incandescent (ICL) bulb can be replaced with a 9 W LED bulb offering similar performance in terms of light output, but at far lower consumption of energy.
While a 100 W ICL bulb, used for four hours a day, consumes 146 units of energy per year, a 9 W LED bulb requires only 13.5 units per year. Clearly, switching to LED is a smart choice as it provides the same output while consuming 90 per cent less energy.
The focus of the campaign is to instill the idea of ‘save power for more power’ and in order to do so, the initiative will create awareness about energy efficient products and services, smart ways to reduce power consumption, alternate sources of energy like solar energy and the need to conserve energy. The idea is to address the rising need for energy conservation in India.
As part of the campaign, we will highlight the stories of individuals and organisations who are championing the cause of energy conservation by switching to renewable sources of energy, adopting innovations to reduce energy consumption while enjoying the same output. The initiative will provide a platform for all stakeholders to share their ideas and work towards the common goal of, ‘Save power for more power’.