India-Norway action plan for long-term cooperation

Keeping in mind that the present Indo-Norwegian programme of institutional co-operation is coming to an end by the end of this year, the Norwegian government has drawn up an action plan of co-operation with India in order to have a long-term relationship at people-to-people and business-to-business levels.

This new initiative envisages co-operation at many levels like scientific, commercial, economic and cultural, Norwegian Ambassador in India Jon Westborg said here on Thursday.

One of the basic things in this new action plan will be research and technology transfer between the two countries on common areas, including agriculture, bio-technology, fisheries and shipping, the envoy said.

He was addressing a two-day international workshop on bioactive peptides and their role in nutrition & health foods at the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), organised under the Indo-Norwegian programme.

This initiative had led to high level visits between the two countries, resulting in interaction and setting up of joint committees. The Norwegian prime minister had also visited India soon after he took up the post, he said.

The programme's monitoring unit chief P L Narayana said 41 projects had received support under the programme, of which 27 activities had concluded and feedback on two had been received. These would benefit both India and Norway. The programme aimed at institutional level cooperation, launched in 1990, would conclude in December 2006.

India and Norway had common resources and these should be used in a positive way for the benefit of the people of both the countries, said Elizabet E Vegarud.

Expressing confidence that the new researches in food and technology areas, developed under the institutional co-operation programme, would be taken further because of their far-reaching better health and curative and preventive benefits, CFTRI Director V Prakash said the role of nutrition in helping the one billion below poverty line people and food safety aspects should form the major part of the agenda now.

"When we look at the problem of health concerns, it is important to look at the synergy of high science and high technology of how it could deliver nutritious foods which can make a difference at an affordable cost to the needy."

"There is a huge potential for peanut, mustard and sunflower seed proteins, a shift from chemical to biotechnological and nutraceutical, if one considers the importance of peptides."

"The benefits of whey protein, a bio-product of milk, are increasing in consumer recognition as research continues to uncover the nutritional properties of this dairy-derived protein. Their role in sports nutrition, weight measurement and cardiovascular health is phenomenal."

The understanding of the intersection of genomics and molecular nutrition has the potential to revolutionalise diet, nutrition and food products, and health care, Prakash said.

As one of the largest producers of milk India had high potential in whey proteins. A number of discoveries have been made in this project, CSIR's ISTAD Head Rajendra Prasad added.