Chandigarh
5 December 2023
DIVYA AZAD
Millets offer a lot of opportunities for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), said Guneet Swani, a city based social entrepreneur and Chandigarh’s millets ambassador, in a session at the CII Technovate Conference held here recently.
“Health Smart City and Millets promotion is also an innovation and am happy that I was made a part of the panel to discuss the same at the CII Technovate Conference,” said Guneet, who has made Chandigarh India’s first health smart city by promoting millets as part of a regular diet due to the inherent benefits of the coarse grains.
On a question from the audience on how she looks at India vis-à-vis millets 10 years from now, Guneet said that there would be a paradigm shift with people replacing rice and wheat with millets. “I can foresee the whole world embracing millets in the next decade,” she added.
She said that millets’ use in one’s diet is an important aspect of life and we have to bring academia and industry together to support the promotion of millets and this was achieved well by the session.
Talking about the prospects of MSMEs in millet based industries, she said: “I feel that millets and MSMEs are forgotten jewels. We need to have more and more MSME entrepreneurs entering the ‘millets space’ with their startups as millets offer a sea of opportunities to them.”
Guneet said that integrating MSMEs with millet production can create a mutually beneficial synergy. MSMEs in the food processing sector can leverage the nutritional qualities of millets to produce innovative and health enhancing products, thereby fostering the growth of both sectors.
“The incorporation of millets into the MSME ecosystem not only diversifies agricultural production but also addresses the global challenge of food security by promoting resilient and nutritious crops. Embracing this intersection between MSMEs and millets can contribute to a more sustainable and inclusive economic landscape,” she said.
CII Technovate Conference Chairman Jayant Davar, who is also Co-Chairman and Managing Director, Sandhar Technologies Ltd, moderated an interesting session at CII Technovate Summit, that saw participation of Chandigarh’s millets ambassador Guneet Swani; serial innovator Pulkit Ahuja; Dr Nagarajan Ramamoorthy, Director, IIM Amritsar; and Sarita Nagpal, Partner, Kaizen Institute South Asia.
