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Category: India

  • Suspected Chinese spy pigeon released after 8-month detention in India

    A pigeon, suspected of being used by China for espionage, has been released after eight months in police custody in Mumbai, according to local media reports. 

    The falsely-accused bird was released from the Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals on Tuesday, said a police officer in India’s most populous city, as cited by the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency on Wednesday. Its current whereabouts are unknown. 

    The pigeon was caught in May, 2023, at a port in the Chembur suburb of Mumbai with two rings tied to its legs featuring words that appeared to be Chinese, which led the police to suspect it was spying for China, PTI reported.

    The bird was taken to the animal hospital for custody, until it emerged in January that it was actually an open-water racing pigeon from Taiwan, which had escaped and flown to India, according to the news agency.

    This was not the first time a pigeon has been detained by the watchful Indian police force.

    In March, 2023, two suspected spy pigeons were caught in the eastern Odisha state. The first one was found on a fishing boat with devices fitted on its leg which appear to be a camera and a microchip. The two birds are believed to still be under investigation. 

    Back in 2020, police in Indian-controlled Kashmir captured a bird that belonged to a Pakistani fisherman, but later found that it had simply flown across the border, admittedly without permission.

    Before that, in 2016, another pigeon was captured after it was found with a note threatening Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    Flying spies

    Throughout history, pigeons have been used by the militaries in many countries for delivering messages and spying.

    “Today, with all kinds of ways to intercept messages sent by electronic means, terrorists or enemies of a state can use ways that cannot be tapped, such as pigeons,” said Yusuf Unjhawala, an Indian defense analyst as well as a scholar at the Takshashila Institution in Bangalore

    “The use of animals for military purposes is an old thing, from horses to elephants to pigeons,” said Unjhawala. “Dolphins can also be used to detect underwater mines.”

    A Taiwanese defense expert, Shen Ming-Shih from the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said racing pigeons have gained such popularity that raising them has become an industry in Taiwan.

    “Taiwan also uses racing pigeons to send intelligence or deliver messages, despite the advancement of various communication technologies,” Shen told Radio Free Asia.

    Edited by Taejun Kang and Elaine Chan.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • GMOs Will Destroy Indian Agriculture, Which is Non-GMO and Will Harm the Health of 1 Billion Indians and Their Animals

    Hybrid Bt cotton, the only commercialised GM crop in India, has failed conclusively. Based on this failure and the evidence on GM crops to date, the Union of India’s proposal to commercialise herbicide-tolerant (HT) mustard will destroy not just Indian mustard agriculture but citizens’ health.

    There have been five days of intense hearings on this matter in the Supreme Court (SC) — the GMO Public Interest Writ filed almost 20 years ago in 2005 by the author, which ended on 18 January 2024.

    In these last 20 years, piecemeal hearings have dealt with submissions relating to individual crops like hybrid Bt cotton, the attempted commercialisation of hybrid Bt brinjal (2010) and now the attempt to commercialise hybrid HT mustard.

    The evidence provided here is a distillation of the critical inputs of those 60+ submissions based on the affidavits and studies of leading, independent scientists and experts of international renown.

    However, there is a serious and proven conflict of interest among our regulators, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture along with the International Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), which promote GMOs in Indian agriculture. This evidence reflects the findings of the TEC Report (Technical Expert Committee) appointed by the Supreme Court (SC) in 2012 and two Parliamentary Standing Committees of 2012 and 2017.

    ‘Modern biotechnology’ or genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are products where the genomes of organisms are transformed through laboratory techniques, including genetically engineered DNA (recombinant) and its direct introduction into cells. These are techniques not used in traditional breeding and selection.

    GMOs create organisms in ways that have never existed in 3.8 billion years of evolution and produce ‘unintended effects’ that are not immediately apparent. This is why rigorous, independent protocols for risk and hazard identification are the sine qua non of correct regulation in the public interest. The Indian ‘Rules of 1989’ describe GMOs as “hazardous”.

    Contamination by GMOs of the natural environment is of outstanding concern, recognised by the CBD (Convention on Biodiversity), of which India is a signatory. India is one of 17 listed international hot spots of diversity, which includes mustard, brinjal and rice.  India is the centre of the world’s biological diversity in brinjal with over 2500 varieties grown in the country and as many as 29 wild species.

    India is a secondary centre of origin of rape-seed mustard with over 9000 accessions in our gene bank (National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources). With a commercialised GM crop, contamination is certain. The precautionary principle must apply, is read into the Constitution and is a legal precedent in India.

    Hybrid Bt cotton was introduced in 2002 and remains the only approved commercialised crop in India. It has been an abject failure.

    Failure of Bt cotton

    India is the only country in the world to have introduced the Bt gene into hybrid Bt Cotton.  It was introduced in hybrids as a ‘value-capture mechanism’, according to Dr Kranthi, ex director of the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR). The hybrid technology disallows seed saving by millions of small farmers. Conservative estimates indicate that Indian farmers may have paid an additional amount of Rs 14,000 crores for Bt cotton seeds during the period 2002-18, of which trait fees amounted to Rs 7337.37 crores, (Dr Kranthi). There was also a phenomenal three-fold increase in labour costs in hybrid cotton cultivation.

    Prof. Andrew Gutierrez (University of California, Berkeley) is among the world’s leading entomologists and cotton scientists and provided the ecological explanation of why hybrid Bt cotton is every bit a disaster that it is in India. Most hybrid cottons are long season (180-200-day duration). This increases the opportunities for pest resurgence and outbreaks because it links into the lifecycle of the pest. The low-density planting also increases the cost of hybrid seeds substantially.

    Hybrids require stable water too (therefore, irrigation, as opposed to rain-fed) and more fertiliser. Some 90% of current Bt cotton hybrids appear susceptible to sap-sucking insects, leaf-curl virus and leaf reddening, adding to input costs and loss of yield. Most telling is that India produces only 3.3 million tonnes from its irrigated area of 4.9 million hectares compared to 6.96 million tonnes from an equivalent area in China.

    Hybrid Bt cotton in India has resulted in a yield plateau, high production costs and low productivity that reduce farmer revenues, correlated with increased farmer distress and suicides. It has stymied the development of economically viable high-density short-season (HD-SS) Non-Bt high-yielding straight-line varieties. The failure of hybrid Bt cotton is an abject lesson for GMO implementation in other crops.

    Yet, the regulators attempted to repeat history in the form of hybrid Bt brinjal and Hybrid HT Mustard.

    Field trial solutions (CICR data) of high-density short-season (HD-SS) NON-GMO pure-line (non-hybrid), rainfed cotton varieties have been developed in India that could more than double yield and nearly triple net income.

    The Central Government admitted in its affidavit in the Delhi High Court (22 Jan 2016), adding, (on 23 January 2017), that Bt “cotton seeds are now unaffordable to farmers due to high royalties charged by MMBL (Mahyco Monsanto Biotech Ltd) which has a near monopoly on Bt cotton seeds and that this has led to a market failure”.

    Moreover, there is no trait for yield enhancement in the Bt technology. Any intrinsic yield increase is properly attributable to its hybridisation in both Bt cotton and Bt brinjal. Lower insecticide use is the reason for introducing the Bt technology worldwide.

    The pink bollworm has developed high levels of resistance against Bollgard-II Bt cotton, leading to increased insecticide usage in India, increases in new induced secondary pests and crop failures. The annual report 2015-16 of the ICAT-CICR confirms that Bt cotton is no longer effective for bollworm control

    Insecticide usage on cotton in 2002 was 0.88 kg per hectare, which increased to 0.97 kg per hectare in 2013 (Srivastav and Kolady 2016).

    Matters were deliberately muddied in India, leading to any hybrid vigour being attributed to the Bt technology! Yields have stagnated despite the deployment of all available latest technologies, including the introduction of new potent GM technologies, a two-fold increase in the use of fertilisers and increased insecticide use and irrigation. And yet, India’s global rank is 30-32nd in terms of yield.

    In 13 years, the cost of cultivation increased 302%. In 15 years, there was 450% increase in labour costs. The costs of hybrid seed, insecticide and fertiliser increased more than 250 to 300%.

    Net profit for farmers was Rs. 5971/ha in 2003 (pre-Bt) but plummeted to net losses of Rs. 6286 in 2015 (Dr Kranthi)

    Regulatory failure: Bt brinjal

    Regulators tried to commercialise Bt brinjal and in hybrids in 2009. The Bt gene is proven to be undeniably toxic (Profs. Schubert of the Salk Institute; Pusztai, Seralini and others have confirmed this).

    In August 2008, the regulators were forced to publish the Developers’ (Monsanto-Mahyco) self-assessed bio-safety dossier on their website, 16 months after the order of the SC to make the safety dossier data public (15 Feb 2007).

    Bt brinjal was the first vegetable food crop in the world to be approved for commercialisation, by the collective regulatory body and their expert committees, virtually without oversight. When the international scientific community examined the raw data, their collective comments were scathing. Prof Jack Heinemann stated that Mahyco has failed at the first, elementary step of the safety study: “I have never seen less professionalism in the presentation and quality assurance of molecular data than in this study”.

    He criticised Mahyco for using outdated studies, testing to below acceptable standards and inappropriate and invalid test methods.

    Prof David Andow, in his comprehensive critique of Monsanto’s Dossier, ‘Bt brinjal Event EE1’, listed 37 studies of which perhaps one had been conducted and reported to a satisfactory level by Monsanto. He concluded: “The GEAC set too narrow a scope for environmental risk assessment (ERA) of hybrid Bt brinjal, and it is because of this overly narrow scope that the EC-II is not an adequate ERA… most of the possible environmental risks of Bt brinjal have not been adequately evaluated; this includes risks to local varieties of brinjal and wild relatives, risks to biological diversity, and risk of resistance evolution in BFSB.”

    The Central Government itself declared an unconditional and indefinite moratorium on Bt brinjal in Feb 2009 based on the collective responses of the scientific community.

    Disaster in the making: GM Hybrid HT Mustard

    Like Bt, HT is a pesticidal crop (to kill weeds). These two GMO technologies represent about 98% of crops planted worldwide, with HT crops accounting for more than 80%. Neither has a trait for yield. In its 2002 Report, the United States Department for Agriculture stated: “currently available GM crops do not increase the yield potential… In fact, yield may even decrease if the varieties used to carry the herbicide tolerant or insect-resistant genes are not the highest yielding cultivars… Perhaps the biggest issue raised by these results is how to explain the rapid adoption of GE crops when farm financial impacts appear to be mixed or even negative.” 

    The developer’s (Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants University of Delhi) bio-safety dossier, in contempt of the SC orders, has never made its data public. A Right to Information (RTI) request was filed in 2016 with the Directorate of Rape-Seed Mustard Research, which conducts protocols of non-GMO mustard trials for crop improvement programmes for our farmers, for varietal stability and performance. The RTI was an eye opener. Virtually all the directorate’s norms were flouted in the field trials, making them invalid. Hybrid mustard HT DMH 11 was out yielded by more than the 10% norm by non-GMO varieties and hybrids, which forced the developers to admit this fact in their formal reply affidavit in the SC.

    Hybrid HT mustard DMH 11 employs three transgenes: the male sterility gene, barnase, the female restorer gene, barstar, and the bar gene that confers tolerance to Bayer’s herbicide glufosinate ammonium or BASTA. Each of the parent lines has the bar gene that makes them both HT crops along with their resulting hybrid DMH 11. The reason for employing barnase and barstar is because mustard is a closed pollinating crop (even though it out crosses pretty well, 18%+) and this technology (a male sterility technology) makes it easier to produce mustard hybrids.  It is not a hybrid technology. Its counterpart in non-GMO male sterility technology is the CMS system (cytoplasmic male sterility). Employing male sterility in mustard allows it to be used more easily in already existing hybridisation technology.

    It is curious the extent to which the regulators have tried to obfuscate the facts and muddy the waters. Their first response was that the acronym HT in mustard DMH 11 means ‘hybrid technology’. When this didn’t work, the next ‘try’ was that DMH 11 isn’t an HT crop!

    This too was easily proved wrong because of the presence of the bar gene. Now, this fact has been admitted.

    Furthermore, the regulators have failed either intentionally, or because they are simply unable to stop, illegal HT cotton being grown on a commercial scale for the last 15 years or so. This is the state of GMO regulation in India.

    Bayer’s own data sheet states that glufosinate causes birth defects and is damaging to most plants that it comes into contact with. Like its counterpart, glyphosate, it is a systemic, broad spectrum, non-selective herbicide (it kills indiscriminately soil organisms, beneficial insects etc) and is damaging to most plants and aquatic life. The US Environmental Protection Agency classifies glufosinate ammonium as “persistent” and “mobile” and is “expected to adversely affect non-target terrestrial plant species”.

    Glufosinate is not permitted in crop plants in India, under the Insecticide Act. Since it is very persistent in the environment, it will certainly contaminate water supplies in addition to food. Surfactants are used to get the active ingredients into the plant, which is engineered to withstand the herbicide, so it doesn’t die when sprayed. The herbicide and surfactant are sprayed directly on the crops and significant quantities are then taken up into the plant.  The weeds die — or used to!

    The US Geological survey noted that while 20 million pounds/year of glyphosate was used prior to GE crops (1992), 280 million pounds/year was used in 2012, largely as a result of glyphosate-resistant crops. In the U.S. alone, glyphosate-resistant weeds were estimated to occupy an area of over 24 million hectares as of 2012. This is a failed and unsustainable technology anywhere, and for India it will be disastrous.

    The stated objective by the regulators themselves for HT mustard is that the two HT parent lines (barnase and barstar each with the bar gene), will be similarly employed in India’s best (non-GMO) varieties to create new crosses resulting in any number of HT hybrid mustard DMH crops. Thus, Indian mustard varieties (non-GMO) in a very short time will be contaminated and Indian mustard agriculture (which is non-GMO) destroyed.

    The regulators claim that GMO HT hybrid DMH 11 will create a significant dent in India’s oilseeds imports. Given that GMO mustard has no gene for yield enhancement, is significantly out yielded by non-GMO mustard hybrids and varieties, this is indeed a magic bean produced from thin air by the regulators, defying all logic and commonsense. Mustard Oil imports are virtually zero (ie rapeseed mustard as distinct from canola rape oil which is also illegal GMO).

    The story of the current steep decline in oilseeds production in Indian farming must be laid at the door of a wrong policy decision that comprehensively ignored national and farmers’ interest to severely slash import duties on oilseeds of around 300% to virtually zero. In 1993-94, India imported just 3% of our oil-seed demand; we were self- sufficient. Then we happily bowed to WTO pressure and now import almost 70% of our demand in edible oils! (Devinder Sharma).  This is the real reason for our heavy import bill.

    The TEC recommend a double bar on GM Mustard — for being an HT crop and also in a centre of mustard diversification and/or origin. It is hoped that our government will recognise the dangers of GMOs, bar HT crops, including GM mustard, and impose a moratorium on all Bt crops.

    Aruna Rodrigues

    Lead Petitioner in the GMO PIL filed in 2005 for a moratorium on GM crops.

    The post GMOs Will Destroy Indian Agriculture, Which is Non-GMO and Will Harm the Health of 1 Billion Indians and Their Animals first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • ‘Immense Potential’: Indian Government Body to Develop Cultivated Fish in Partnership with Neat Meatt

    cultivated fish india
    6 Mins Read

    In a first-of-its-kind partnership, the Indian government is embarking on a project to create cell-cultured seafood with cultivated meat startup Neat Meatt Biotech.

    The ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has signed an MoU with New Delhi-based biotech company Neat Meatt to develop cultivated fish, in what is a landmark project for the world’s third-largest seafood consumer. The initiative aims to ensure India keeps up with international progress and tackle climate and food security issues.

    The project aims to tackle India’s growing demand for seafood – fish consumption has swelled by 88% in just over a decade – reduce pressure on wild resources, keep up with global progress on alternative proteins, and provide solutions to climate change and food insecurity.

    Proof of concept could be shown within two months

    The partnership will initially focus on developing cell-cultured varieties of high-value fish species – like kingfish, pomfret and seer fish – which are extremely popular in India, especially among the coastal belts. Based in Kochi, CMFRI has entered into a collaborative research agreement with Neat Meatt, a cultivated meat manufacturer and solutions provider, to help develop these seafood products.

    An MoU signed by the two parties reveals that CMFRI will conduct research into early cell line development of high-value marine fish species. This involves isolating and cultivating fish cells for further R&D. Additionally, the marine research organisation will handle genetic, biochemical and analytical work, equipped with a cell culture laboratory with basic facilities, providing a solid foundation for research in cellular biology.

    Meanwhile, the project will leverage Neat Meatt’s expertise in cell culture tech, with the firm leading the optimisation of cell growth media, development of scaffolds or micro-carriers for cell attachment, and scaling up production through bioreactors. The company will be responsible for providing the necessary consumables, manpower and additional equipment required as well.

    lab grown meat india
    Courtesy: CMFRI

    Neat Meatt co-founder and CEO Sandeep Sharma is confident that the partnership’s proof of concept could be established within a couple of months. But Kajal Chakraborty, principal scientist at CMFRI, told the Hindustan Times that the product may take a decade to reach the market. “Just like other meat, we will use cell line cultures to produce fish meat. It’s even more difficult to grow meat of higher vertebrates in laboratory settings,” she explained.

    CMFRI director A Gopalakrishnan added: “This project aims to accelerate development in this field, ensuring India is not left behind in this emerging industry.”

    Why India decided to invest in cultivated seafood

    India’s seafood market is worth $57.15B, according to one estimate, and is set to expand by 7.6% annually. And last year, its seafood exports reached an all-time high, shipping out 1.7 million tonnes worth $8.09B. But with growing awareness about the seafood industry’s climate impact, there have been calls to switch to lower-carbon production methods.

    While estimates suggest that carbon emissions of fish caught in India’s marine fisheries are 17.7% lower than the global average, in terms of overall climate change impact by 2050, the country remains in the medium to high category. The country has a burgeoning alt-protein sector, with 113 companies working across plant-based, cultivated and fermentation-derived meat, dairy, seafood and eggs.

    But even though several alt-seafood startups exist in India (such as Seaspire, Mister Veg, VegetaGold, Veggie Champ and The Mighty Food), only two companies – Klevermeat and Myoworks – are known to be working on cultured seafood. So this collaboration between CMFRI and Neat Meatt holds promise.

    “This public-private partnership [PPP] marks a crucial step in bridging the gap between India and other nations like Singapore, Israel, and the USA, who are already advancing cultured seafood research,” said Gopalakrishnan, who praised cultured fish’s “immense potential for environmental and food security”. He added: “This collaboration leverages CMFRI’s marine research expertise with Neat Meatt’s technological know-how in this field, paving the way for a sustainable and secure future for seafood production in India.”

    lab grown seafood india
    Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons/CC

    Explaining the reason behind this partnership, the Good Food Institute (GFI) India’s science and technology specialist, Chandana Tekkatte, told Green Queen: “There is a growing recognition that by enabling more large-scale international scientific and industrial collaborations (leveraging our decades-old bioeconomy expertise), India could become a production powerhouse in the emerging cultivated meat industry and pave the way for other emerging economies.

    “The DBT-BIRAC is also encouraging such PPP models to help accelerate R&D breakthroughs in cultivated meat and seafood in India, similar to the momentum seen in Singapore, Israel, and the US. The Ministry of Science and Technology has also been working closely to advance research in cultivated meat and other smart protein categories within the nation’s priorities for high-performance biomanufacturing.”

    In another instance of government support for cell-based meat in India, the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Science and Engineering Research Board included cultivated meat research under its Competitive Research Grant Programmes in 2021.

    The rise of cultivated proteins in India

    Tekkatte said India’s cultivated meat and seafood industry is still in its infancy but stands to benefit significantly from India’s thriving pharmaceutical sector, which is set to reach $150B in 2025. “This sector has a proven track record in affordable, high-quality manufacturing, and cultivated meat companies have the opportunity to tap into its vast infrastructure and resources,” she explained.

    She added that key early-stage scientific advancements in cultivated meat and seafood have been led by startups in cell line development (Neat Meatt, Klevermeat, Clear Meat), media formulations (Clear Meat), and scaffolds (Myoworks) over the last five years. These have helped build the foundation of the sector and “continue to inspire future research endeavours”.

    Previous GFI India research has revealed that one in four Indians would consider giving up conventional meat, seafood, dairy or eggs in the future, citing issues like hygiene, smell, ease of cooking and heaviness on the stomach, as well as animal welfare and impact on the climate. Meanwhile, a three-country study from 2019 on consumer acceptance of cultured meat revealed that 56% of Indians are “very or extremely likely” to buy cultivated meat regularly. “Consumer education and perceptions will play an important role in advertising, marketing, and sale of cultivated meat,” said Tekkatte.

    This will also be influenced by prices. “The cost of cultivated meat production will come down with scale — and the scale-up principles of cultivated meat biomanufacturing are sound and have been demonstrated in biopharmaceuticals and vaccine manufacturing industries,” explained Tekkatte.

    cultivated meat india
    Courtesy: Myoworks

    She added that the Food Safety Standards Authority of India’s regulatory framework “needs to be made more dynamic and evolve in tandem with innovations”. Cultivated meat falls under the Food Safety and Standards Regulations (FSSAI) set out in 2017, which rules that if a product or ingredient doesn’t have a history of human consumption – or is obtained using new tech with engineering processes that significantly alter its composition – it’s classed as a non-specified or novel food product.

    In 2020, the FSSAI formed the Working Group on Cultured Meat with regulatory and scientific experts to study the possible regulatory pathways for cultivated meat in India. “Early engagement with cultivated meat companies intending to apply for pre-market approvals under the Non-Specified Foods Regulations during the development process would enable the regulatory body to have oversight of the development process, leading to effective, timely guidance to the companies to ensure regulatory compliance and appropriate data submission to reduce approval timelines,” Tekkatte outlined.

    “The significance of channelling resources into the cultivated meat industry is particularly relevant in India, with our unique vulnerability to climate change and public health crises. With this massive decrease in land use, additional opportunities arise for the diversification of crops towards direct food consumption,” she said. “As we funnel more investment towards R&D and infrastructure, there’s no doubt that the cultivated meat sector can grow exponentially in India and help cater to the increasing protein needs of the global population.”

    The post ‘Immense Potential’: Indian Government Body to Develop Cultivated Fish in Partnership with Neat Meatt appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • BEL, IIT Delhi ink MoU to transform breakthroughs in Deep Tech research into products for Indian Navy

    Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has joined hands with the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) at IIT Delhi to translate breakthroughs in Naval Deep Tech research being carried out at CARE – IIT Delhi, into products for Indian Navy. BEL and IIT Delhi today signed an MoU for R&D collaborations in […]

    The post BEL, IIT Delhi ink MoU to transform breakthroughs in Deep Tech research into products for Indian Navy appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • India inches closer to Akash-NG fielding

    The state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India has conducted another test-firing of the in-development Akash New-Generation (Akash-NG) surface-to-air missile (SAM), the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced. According to the MoD, the flight test was staged at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur off India’s northeastern coast, which saw the Akash-NG […]

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  • Sickening Profits: The Global Food System’s Poisoned Food and Toxic Wealth 

    The modern food system is being shaped by the capitalist imperative for profit. Aside from losing their land to global investors and big agribusiness concerns, farmers and ordinary people are being sickened by corporations and a system that thrives on the promotion of ‘junk’ (ultra-processed) food laced with harmful chemicals and cultivated with the use of toxic agrochemicals.

    It’s a highly profitable situation for investment firms like BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity and Capital Group and the food and agribusiness conglomerates they invest in. But BlackRock and others are not just heavily invested in the food industry. They also profit from illnesses and diseases resulting from the food system by having stakes in the pharmaceuticals sector as well. Institutional investors and wealthy individuals park their funds and wealth in these firms and depend on the financial system a toxic food system to deliver.

    Lobbying by agrifood corporations and their well-placed, well-funded front groups ensures this situation prevails. They continue to capture policy-making and regulatory space at international and national levels and promote the (false) narrative that without their products the world would starve.

    They are now also pushing a fake-green, ecomodernist agenda and rolling out their new proprietary technologies in order to further entrench their grip on a global food system that produces poor food, illness, environmental degradation, dependency and dispossession.

    The prevailing globalised agrifood model is built on unjust trade policies, the leveraging of sovereign debt to benefit powerful interests, population displacement and land dispossession. It fuels export-oriented commodity monocropping and regional food insecurity.

    This model is responsible for increasing rates of illness, nutrient-deficient diets, a narrowing of the range of food crops, chemical runoffs, increasing levels of farmer indebtedness and the eradication of biodiversity. And it relies on a policy paradigm that privileges urbanisation, global markets and agrifood corporations’ needs ahead of rural communities, local markets, on-farm resources and food sovereignty.

    In addition, there are also the broader geopolitical aspects of food and agriculture in a post-COVID world characterised by food inflation, hardship and multi-trillion-dollar global debt.

    There are huge environmental, political, social and health issues that stem from how much of our food is currently produced and consumed. A paradigm shift is required.

    All of this is set out in Sickening Profits: The Global Food System’s Poisoned Food and Toxic Wealth (December 2023), published as an open-access (free) e-book by Global Research and is a follow up to the author’s book Food, Dispossession and Dependency: Resisting the New World Order (2022).

    That book contains substantial sections on the agrarian crisis in India and issues affecting the agriculture sector. Aruna Rodrigues — prominent campaigner and lead petitioner in the GMO Mustard Public Interest Litigation currently being heard in the Supreme Court of India — stated the following about the book:

    This is graphic, a detailed horror tale in the making for India, an exposé on what is planned, to hand over Indian sovereignty and food security to big business.

    ‘Sickening Profits’ continues in a similar vein. By describing situations in Ukraine, India, the Netherlands and elsewhere, it is another graphic horror tale in the making that is being intensified across the globe. The question is: Can it be stopped?

    Frederic Mousseau, policy director at the Oakland Institute, an influential US-based think tank, says:

    It takes a book to break down the dynamics that are pushing agro-chemical agriculture to farmers and consumers around the world and to reveal the strength of the diverse movement of people and organizations who stand in the way of these destructive and predatory forces.

    Colin Todhunter takes readers on a world tour that makes a compelling case against the fallacy of the food scarcity and Green Revolution arguments advanced by the mainstream media and international institutions on behalf of powerful financial interests such as Blackrock, Vanguard, or Gates. Todhunter makes it obvious that a key factor of world hunger and of the environmental crisis we are facing is a capitalist system that ‘requires constant growth, expanding markets and sufficient demand.’

    Uplifting rather than depressing, after this lucid diagnosis, he highlights some of the countless people-led initiatives and movements, from Cuba, Ethiopia to India, that fight back against destruction and predation with agroecology and farmers-led practices, respectful of the people and the planet. By debunking the “artificial scarcity” myth that is constantly fed to us, Todhunter demonstrates that it is actually not complicated to change course. Readers will just have to join the movement.

    The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) is “an independent research and media group of writers, scholars, journalists and activists” and believes in “open access to truthful information and nuanced reporting”. It is committed to publishing e-books that are free of charge. Sickening Profits: The Global Food System’s Poisoned Food and Toxic Wealth can be read directly on the GRG site here and can also be accessed and downloaded as a fully formatted pdf (numbered contents/pages etc) on the academia.edu website here.

    The post Sickening Profits: The Global Food System’s Poisoned Food and Toxic Wealth  first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • PTC Industries and Nasmyth sign MoU to vertically integrate supply chain solutions from India and provide global solutions to OEMs

    PTC Industries (‘PTC’) and Nasmyth are pleased to announce that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for collaboration to leverage their capabilities for offering global solutions to defence and aerospace customers in India and globally. The MOU will see Nasmyth and PTC work together in support of the ‘Make in India’ Atamnirbhar Bharat […]

    The post PTC Industries and Nasmyth sign MoU to vertically integrate supply chain solutions from India and provide global solutions to OEMs appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Counter-UAS Market Set for Steep Rise

    The Ukraine war has revealed that C-UAS equipment must now be a fundamental part of any military force. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are now a staple for most militaries, but the ability to counter them has lagged considerably. Thanks to the Nagorno-Karabakh 2020 conflict and ongoing Ukraine War, armed forces are belatedly recognising the need […]

    The post Counter-UAS Market Set for Steep Rise appeared first on Asian Military Review.

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  • Building Regional Response to Chinese Naval Build-up

    Individual nations around the South China Sea, while not being able to match China’s maritime strength, are trying to add to, and modernise, their own capabilities. The ability of countries with maritime claims in the South China Sea (SCS) to respond to the activities of the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) and Chinese Maritime Militia (CMM) […]

    The post Building Regional Response to Chinese Naval Build-up appeared first on Asian Military Review.

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  • Exercise Sea Dragon hones ASW skills for Indo-Pacific stakeholders

    Maritime patrol aircraft from four Indo-Pacific countries – Australia, India, Japan, and South Korea – have deployed to the United States’ Anderson Air Force Base in Guam for the annual US Navy-led Sea Dragon anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercise, which is taking place from 8 to 24 January. Sea Dragon 2024 will see participating nations and […]

    The post Exercise Sea Dragon hones ASW skills for Indo-Pacific stakeholders appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Eradicating manual scavenging: a step toward upholding human rights and social justice

    The practice of manual scavenging is a violation of human rights that needs to be addressed in health and sanitation policy reform. Caste-based discrimination and lack of technological innovation is at the root of the issue. Arunbalaji Selvaraj, explores how law enforcement, economic empowerment, increasing awareness and upgrading sanitary infrastructure are essential to upholding human rights.

    Manual scavenging, a practice distinct and far more perilous than regular janitorial work, involves the hazardous and inhumane task of manually handling human waste from dry latrines and sewers. Still shockingly prevalent in various regions of India, this practice starkly contrasts with the role of janitors, who typically engage in the cleaning and maintenance of buildings and spaces, using tools and equipment that minimise direct contact with waste. Despite the enactment of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act in 2013, aimed at abolishing this degrading practice, significant implementation gaps and societal bias have allowed it to persist. Addressing the plight of manual scavengers transcends legal enforcement; it is a pressing humanitarian issue that demands immediate action to protect human dignity, uphold human rights, and foster profound social reform. The persistence of manual scavenging is not just a failure of policy but a reflection of deep-seated social inequities, emphasising the need for a collective societal effort towards empathy, understanding, and tangible change.

    The Humanitarian Crisis of Manual Scavenging

    Manual scavenging represents a grotesque violation of basic human rights and dignity. Those involved in manual scavenging are exposed to numerous health risks, including harmful gases and pathogens that can lead to diseases like leptospirosis, hepatitis, and helicobacter. Tragically, many manual scavengers lose their lives each year due to accidents in septic tanks and sewers, incidents that could have been largely preventable with proper safety measures and equipment.

    The distressing reality of this situation is further amplified considering the role of manual scavengers in maintaining some of India’s busiest public spaces. In a country with a population exceeding 1.3 billion, the scale of public facilities and their usage is immense. For instance, India’s railway stations, an extensive network that handles over 23 million passengers daily, and bus stands bustling with activity round the clock, often rely on manual scavenging for sanitation maintenance. Furthermore, the toilets on Indian trains, which form arguably the longest toilet line globally, are manually cleaned after their journeys. In 2019 alone, Indian Railways, the world’s fourth-largest rail network, carried over 8 billion passengers. These statistics are not just numbers; they represent the immense scale of public usage and the consequent burden placed on manual scavengers, underlining the urgent need for comprehensive reforms in sanitation management and social attitudes. These figures starkly illustrate the intense demand placed on public sanitation facilities in India and the dire need for sustainable and humane waste management practices. This scenario underscores a deep-rooted societal indifference towards the wellbeing and dignity of manual scavengers, and highlights an urgent need for systemic change.

    The Intersection with Caste Discrimination

    To address the issue of caste-based discrimination in the context of manual scavenging in India, it’s important to look at the available data. According to government data, an overwhelming 97% of manual scavengers in India are Dalits, highlighting the strong link between caste and this practice. Specifically, about 42,594 manual scavengers belong to Scheduled Castes (SCs), 421 to Scheduled Tribes (STs), and 431 to Other Backward Classes (OBCs). This data starkly illustrates the caste-based nature of manual scavenging and underscores the need to recognise and address this issue as a form of caste-based violence and discrimination.

    However, it’s also noteworthy that there is often a lack of comprehensive data or an underreporting of figures related to manual scavenging, partly due to its illegal status and the associated stigma. This absence of detailed national records can be seen as an element of societal indifference towards lower-caste workers, further marginalising them and perpetuating the cycle of discrimination and exclusion.

    Therefore, when discussing manual scavenging in the context of caste-based discrimination in India, it is crucial to not only consider the available statistics but also to acknowledge the gaps in data which may reflect a broader issue of societal indifference and neglect towards marginalised communities.

    The disparity in technological innovation raises a critical question: why haven’t we seen similar advancements in sanitation technology, especially for manual scavenging? In 2023, the kitchen appliance industry witnessed remarkable innovations such as smart ovens with internal cameras, high-tech microwaves with voice control, and water-saving dishwashers. Yet, there seems to be a glaring absence of similar progress in developing machinery for sanitation purposes. This contrast not only highlights a societal and industrial bias towards convenience over essential public health needs but also reflects a deeper assumption that the manual handling of waste is an unalterable status quo. The lack of progress in this area is not just a technological oversight; it represents a societal indifference towards the plight of manual scavengers and the urgency to innovate in ways that uphold their dignity and safety.

    In India, a nation known for its democratic values and cultural diversity, the persistence of manual scavenging in the 21st century is vehemently criticised by numerous campaigners and activists, who label it a ‘national shame.’ This practice not only contravenes the tenets of social, economic, and political justice enshrined in the Indian Constitution but also mirrors a modern form of slavery. A significant reference in this context is a 2014 report by Human Rights Watch, an internationally recognised non-profit organisation. This report highlights the severe implications of manual scavenging and includes a poignant statement from a campaigner: “The manual carrying of human faeces is not a form of employment, but an injustice akin to slavery.” Such powerful advocacy underscores the urgent need for systemic change to eradicate this practice and uphold the dignity and rights of all citizens in India. 

    The onus of mechanising sanitation work is upon us. But who will take up this responsibility? The government, while the most obvious answer, has numerous other issues to tackle. Despite laws prohibiting manual scavenging, only a handful of cases are ever filed against violators, highlighting a societal indifference to the plight of manual scavengers.

    Have you recently used a public toilet? While these facilities are essential for public hygiene, their upkeep often reflects broader social and environmental challenges. Despite varying conditions, these spaces require regular maintenance, a task undertaken by dedicated workers whose efforts are seldom recognised. To truly appreciate the challenges faced by those tasked with cleaning public toilets, one need not perform their job; a mere reflection on their daily experiences offers profound insights into the complexities of manual scavenging. It’s not just about the physical act of cleaning but also about understanding the societal indifference and lack of adequate resources that these workers often encounter. This context brings to light the significant impact of manual scavenging on both individual dignity and broader social dynamics.

    Increasing awareness about the plight of manual scavengers can inspire us to act. We all need to lend our voices to the cause of ending manual scavenging and seek ways to eliminate human involvement in this demeaning task. It’s time for a collective societal effort to replace manual scavenging with more dignified, safer, and mechanised methods of sanitation. This issue transcends technological innovation or policy change – it’s about human dignity and social justice. Below are five ways in which the issue can be tackled.

    Eradicating manual scavenging: a multifaceted approach

    1.Technological intervention: Modern sanitation technologies such as automated sewer cleaning machines and robots can significantly reduce the dependence on human labour for cleaning sewers and septic tanks.

    2.Enforcing the law: Enforcement of the law prohibiting manual scavenging remains weak. We need stricter punitive measures, more frequent inspections, and strong political resolve for real change.

    3.Rehabilitation and economic empowerment: Comprehensive rehabilitation for manual scavengers is essential, encompassing education, skill development training, financial aid, and access to dignified employment opportunities.

    4.Increasing public awareness: Wide-ranging awareness campaigns about the human rights abuses and health risks associated with manual scavenging can foster empathy, build public support for the abolition of the practice, and put pressure on authorities to act.

    5.Upgrading sanitation infrastructure: Investments in improved sanitation infrastructure, including sewage and sewage treatment systems, and providing universal access to safe and hygienic toilets, can eliminate the need for manual scavenging.

    In a country that has achieved technological milestones like launching rockets into space and inventing machines to automate complex tasks, the lack of technological solutions to eliminate manual scavenging is an irony. Surely, a country capable of exploring distant planets can devise a solution to end this inhuman practice.

    The eradication of manual scavenging in India is not merely a task of implementing laws or introducing new technologies; it’s deeply intertwined with addressing the systemic caste and class divisions that perpetuate this practice. It requires strategic investments in impoverished urban and rural areas where this practice is most prevalent. The government and civil society organisations have been working on several fronts to combat this issue. There are ongoing social campaigns within India, such as the Safai Karmachari Andolan, which advocate for the rights and rehabilitation of manual scavengers. The government, on its part, has enacted legislation like the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, and has initiated various projects and innovative solutions, such as the introduction of mechanised sewer cleaning systems, to phase out manual scavenging. However, the challenge lies in effective implementation and ensuring these measures reach the grassroots level.

    It’s imperative to understand that manual scavenging is both an urban and rural issue in India, affecting the marginalised sections of society. Therefore, the approach to eradicating manual scavenging must be holistic, encompassing legal enforcement, economic empowerment, technological solutions, and, most importantly, societal change to dismantle caste-based discrimination. As India progresses toward becoming a modern nation, the elimination of manual scavenging becomes a critical step in this journey, embodying the ethos of social justice and equality. The true measure of a nation’s progress lies in how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. It is time for India to rise to this challenge and ensure a life of dignity and respect for all its people. India’s journey towards modernity and progress will be judged by its ability to eradicate this inhumane practice and uplift its most marginalised communities.

    All articles posted on this blog give the views of the author(s), and not the position of LSE Human Rights, the Department of Sociology, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

    Image credit: Wandering Indian

    This post was originally published on LSE Human Rights.

  • Human rights in decline globally as leaders fail to uphold laws, report warns

    Human Rights Watch’s annual report highlights politicians’ double standards and ‘transactional diplomacy’ amid escalating crises

    Human rights across the world are in a parlous state as leaders shun their obligations to uphold international law, according to the annual report of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

    In its 2024 world report, HRW warns grimly of escalating human rights crises around the globe, with wartime atrocities increasing, suppression of human rights defenders on the rise, and universal human rights principles and laws being attacked and undermined by governments.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • What Do Indians Want From Vegan Food? New Survey Reveals Sector Challenges & Potential

    is virat kohli vegan
    5 Mins Read

    The Good Food Institute (GFI) India has conducted a first-of-its-kind survey on consumer awareness, adoption and purchase behaviour for vegan meat and dairy in India. Here are 12 key takeaways.

    Two months after publishing its first State of the Industry report for the Indian alt-protein market, GFI India has followed up with a survey that provides a glimpse into how consumers think about plant-based meat and dairy.

    The State of the Industry report revealed how vegan dairy reigned supreme, with alt-meat showing some promise. India’s international presence was also on the rise given the amount of export activity, while government support has been encouraging too.

    GFI India aimed to identify the profile of the Indian vegan consumer through a collaborative study with Kantar World Panel, looking at who was likely to regularly purchase alt-meat, dairy and eggs, as well as pay more for these products. It is this survey that the think tank is publishing in full now, covering 2,535 Indians aged 24-60 and earning over ₹50,000/$600 per month.

    Here are 12 key takeaways from the report:

    1) Awareness about plant-based meat and dairy is higher in certain quarters

    india plant based survey
    Courtesy: GFI India

    Nearly half of the Indians surveyed are aware of plant-based dairy, and 27.5% know about meat alternatives. Awareness about these products is highest in metro cities and among those earning between ₹100,000/$1,200 and ₹150,000/$1,800 per month. The demographic is similarly skewed for vegan dairy too.

    2) Social media drives consumer awareness

    For people who are familiar with plant-based alternatives at an “unaided level”, the internet is the biggest driver of awareness, with social media platforms and website ads making up 50% and 44% of the sources for vegan meat and dairy, respectively. Word of mouth is also strong, but print ads and store posters are the least convincing sources.

    3) Vegan product trials are low

    Despite the relatively high amount of awareness, there’s still some way to go when it comes to adoption. Of those who are actuated with vegan alternatives, 23% have tried milk analogues, while only 11% have given alt-meat a shot. But 82% of Indians who have bought plant-based milk in the last six months say they’ll consider buying it again, with a similarly high figure (72%) for vegan meat too.

    4) Trying one category paves the way for the rest

    The GFI-Kantar survey revealed that 40% of respondents who tried meat analogues purchased vegan dairy as well, with 10% doing so the other way round. “Among the plant-based meat, dairy and egg [categories], plant-based dairy is the strongest entry point into the consumer’s household,” the report read. “Once consumers try plant-based dairy, they experiment with other products within the plant-based category.”

    5) Purchase intent is high for both meat and dairy analogues

    gfi india
    Courtesy: GFI India

    Of the households familiar with plant-based dairy, 43% intend to buy a product from the category again, with higher-income groups (earning over ₹100,000/$1,200 per month) and younger people (aged 25-44) showing more promise here. In terms of meat, this figure stands at 33%, with 42% of non-vegetarians likely to meat alternatives again.

    6) Supermarkets rule e-commerce

    Despite the boom in online shopping, when it comes to food, supermarkets are king for Indians. 57% of households bought alt-meat products from supermarkets, compared to 26% purchasing them from e-commerce platforms. This was in even starker contrast for vegan dairy: 65% in supermarkets, 18% on e-commerce.

    7) Chicken is the name of the game

    All of the top nine alt-meat products tried by Indians centred on chicken. Chicken seekh kebabs have been sampled by 26% of Indians – the most tried meat analogue – followed by popcorn chicken (20%), and chicken samosas and biryani (17% each). Meanwhile, 72% of these consumers purchased animal-derived meat products too.

    vegan survey india
    Courtesy: GFI India

    8) Soy milk is the most common, but almond is catching up

    As the original (and cheapest) milk alternative, soy milk has been trialled by 80% of the respondents, with almond milk falling not behind at 55%. 39% of Indians have sipped oat milk or eaten tofu too. In terms of vegan cheese, 54% of respondents have tried it. Plus, 89% of alt-dairy consumers also buy conventional dairy items.

    9) Nutrition, health and social factors dictate alt-meat consumption

    Having a good amount of protein is the number one factor driving Indians towards plant-based meat, with nearly half (47%) citing it. Convenience (33%) and easy cooking and cleaning (30%) are similarly important. But the largest barrier deterring consumption of these products is that other family members aren’t keen on trying them, holding 33% of consumers back. For 24%, these products aren’t relevant.

    10) Protein, health and affordability key for vegan dairy adoption

    Protein content is most important to Indians (52%) when it comes to alt-dairy too, highlighting a gap in messaging and marketing around plant-based analogues. For 43%, the fact that they’re healthy is key. On the other hand, over a quarter of Indians (27%) find these products too expensive, while 25% say an exclusively e-commerce presence is a hurdle, reiterating Indians’ reluctance to buy groceries online.

    plant based milk india
    Courtesy: GFI India

    11) Health and nutrition remain paramount for Indians

    It is general consensus that for Indians, health is the biggest driver for vegan food consumption (over environmental or animal welfare reasons). This is reflected by GFI India’s poll, which shows that being healthy and nutritious is important for 64% and 60% of alt-meat consumers, and 66% and 58% of plant-based dairy users, respectively.

    12) Taste is a huge barrier for repeat purchases

    As in other countries, flavour carries a huge influence on Indians. Poor taste attributes (and high costs) deterred many from buying plant-based meat and dairy again, with texture and dryness also cited as reasons for alt-meat. Meanwhile, ‘naturalness’ and the addition of artificial flavours and preservatives are other reasons here. Finally, not being compatible with coffee and/or tea is another issue, exhibiting consumers’ need for more barista-friendly milk alternatives in India.

    “To encourage trial and repeat purchases, it is crucial for manufacturers to focus on the trifecta of taste, affordability and convenience,” says Rajyalakshmi G, markets and consumer insights advisor at GFI India. “Like any new category, initiatives, including sampling, online campaigns, social media engagement, and strategic retail displays, can contribute significantly to greater awareness and broader adoption. Our goal is to empower manufacturers and industry players with essential consumer insights that can drive the advancement of the sector in India.”

    The post What Do Indians Want From Vegan Food? New Survey Reveals Sector Challenges & Potential appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Tata Boeing Aerospace Delivers 250 AH-64 Apache Fuselages, Manufactured in India

    Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited (TBAL) has delivered the 250th fuselage for the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter from its state-of-the-art facility in Hyderabad. These fuselages are manufactured for customers around the world, including the U.S. Army, and most recently, the six on order with the Indian Army. This milestone reflects TBAL’s continuous dedication to bolstering India’s […]

    The post Tata Boeing Aerospace Delivers 250 AH-64 Apache Fuselages, Manufactured in India appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • India repatriates 151 junta soldiers who fled fighting

    India has repatriated 151 junta soldiers who entered the country last week to escape ethnic Rakhine fighters during clashes across the border in western Myanmar’s Chin state, according to residents and media reports.

    On Dec. 27, Arakan Army, or AA, troops attacked a military base in Chin state’s Paletwa township, prompting the junta soldiers to flee across the border into India’s Mizoram state.

    A resident of Mizoram told RFA Burmese that the 151 troops surrendered to a unit of India’s Assam Rifles in Lawngtlai district’s Tuisentlang village two days later.

    “From there, they were brought to [Mizoram’s capital] Aizawl via Lunglei [township],” said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing security concerns. “I saw a Myanmar plane fly by [on Jan. 2] that appears to have taken the soldiers back. I saw it twice and I believe it made two trips because there were over 150 [soldiers].”

    Indian media reported that local police sent the soldiers – nine of whom were injured – to Aizawl, where they would be interrogated by Indian officials before being handed over to Myanmar’s junta.

    Additional reports said that the troops would be sent back to Myanmar’s Rakhine state capital Sittwe after a Myanmar Airlines aircraft landed at Mizoram’s Lengpui Airport.

    Attempts by RFA to reach Aung Cho, the junta’s spokesman and secretary of Rakhine state, for comment on the status of the troops went unanswered Wednesday.

    ENG_BUR_JuntaMizoram_01032024.2.jpg
    Some of the Myanmar junta soldiers who fled to Mizoram state in India are seen Dec. 29, 2023. (Citizen journalist)

    The 151 junta soldiers are the latest group of military troops to flee clashes with the AA from Chin state into India.

    More than 40 soldiers who entered the country after the AA occupied Chin state’s Rihkhawdar township were returned to Myanmar on Nov. 14.

    Another group of more than 40 soldiers and their family members who fled to India during fighting with anti-junta forces in Sagaing region’s Tamu township were also recently repatriated to Myanmar, according to residents.

    Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Pegasus spyware now turned on Indian media

    Voice of America on 28 December, 2023 reported that the founding editor of one of India’s largest news websites is among the journalists to be targeted by the Pegasus spyware. A joint investigation by the rights group Amnesty International and The Washington Post, published Thursday, found evidence that the invasive spyware is being used again to target media in India.

    Made and marketed by Israeli company the NSO Group, the spyware can be used to access a phone’s messages and emails, peruse photos, eavesdrop on calls, track locations and even film the owner with the camera. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/pegasus/]

    In the latest research, forensic investigations found evidence of the spyware on the iPhones of Siddharth Varadarajan of the news website The Wire, and Anand Mangnale of The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, or OCCRP.

    “Increasingly, journalists in India face the threat of unlawful surveillance simply for doing their jobs, alongside other tools of repression, including imprisonment under draconian laws, smear campaigns, harassment, and intimidation,” Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, who heads Amnesty International’s Security Lab, said in a statement.

    Amnesty reported that it first suspected renewed Pegasus activity during regular monitoring by its researchers in June. It investigated further after Apple sent notifications to iPhone users in October warning they had been targeted by “state sponsored attackers.” Around 20 politicians and journalists in India received the notifications. Amnesty then carried out a forensic analysis for individuals who received the warnings.

    Around that time, the OCCRP had been investigating an Indian tycoon, Gautam Adani, who is an ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and founder of the multinational conglomerate known as the Adani Group.

    Mangnale told the French news agency AFP he was targeted “within hours” of sending questions to the Adani Group on behalf of the OCCRP.

    Varadarajan told the Post he believes the attempted hacking may be related to opposition to the detention of a prominent news publisher in New Delhi.

    In a statement, Amnesty’s Ó Cearbhaill highlighted the chilling effect spyware has on media freedom.

    “Targeting journalists solely for doing their work amounts to an unlawful attack on their privacy and violates their right to freedom of expression,” Ó Cearbhaill said.

    In 2021, New Delhi was accused of using Pegasus to surveil journalists, opposition politicians and activists, with leaked documents showing the spyware had been used against more than 1,000 Indian phone numbers. Prime Minister Modi’s main rival, Rahul Gandhi, was among those targeted.

    The government denied conducting “illegal surveillance” but refused to cooperate with a Supreme Court probe into the allegations, the findings of which have not been made public.

    Following the October notifications sent by Apple, Indian authorities were reported to be investigating whether opposition politicians were targeted.

    Ashwini Vaishnaw, the information and technology minister, said the government was “concerned” by the complaints.

    The Washington Post reported that one day after Apple sent the notifications, government officials in India announced they would investigate the security of Apple devices.

    ——

    The Washington Post (WP) reported Wednesday that following Apple’s October alert about alleged government hacking attempts on iPhones of independent Indian journalists and opposition politicians, Indian government officials swiftly retaliated against Apple.

    It is reported that officials of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), the ruling party, hurried to contain the fallout after journalists and politicians shared Apple’s warnings. The government administration pressured Apple to retract warnings, leading to a heated discussion. Under government pressure, Apple India acknowledged potential mistakes in threat detection and sought to downplay warnings globally. However, during a November meeting, Apple defended its stance against Indian officials’ scrutiny.

    India’s opposition leaders and journalists received Apple alerts, warning of potential state-sponsored i

    https://www.voanews.com/a/journalists-government-critics-in-india-targeted-with-pegasus-spyware/7416268.html

    https://www.jurist.org/news/2023/12/wp-india-government-retaliated-against-apple-after-government-phone-hacking-claims/

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • Filling the MPA Ga

    The submarine club is growing in size; so cue the entry of a new maritime patrol platform. At the height of the Cold War, most of the world’s leading airborne anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exponents operated big turboprop-powered Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPAs). Most of these were developed from trans-continental turboprop airliners – the P-3 Orion from […]

    The post Filling the MPA Ga appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Beyond the Ethnic Aisle: 6 Vegan-Friendly US Brands Championing South Asian Culture

    south asian brands us
    6 Mins Read

    An increasing number of diaspora startups in the US are championing their South Asian heritage with offerings that pay homage to their culture while catering to a broad audience.

    When I lived in the UK, my bedroom was always known as the spice market. I genuinely had more spices than clothes, stocked in big batches because they were never from my local supermarket. Instead, I’d always get them from India, filling an entire bag with all the spices every time I was travelling, alongside chips packets that I would find for five times the price in London, and Maggi. Because always, Maggi.

    It’s a reality many South Asians will know of and relate to. Moving out of home to a new country is always a challenge, so it’s really helpful to have food – also known as instant happiness for many – that you’re familiar with and reminds you of home. Whether that’s homemade paranthas destined for the freezer, family recipes and condiments passed down multiple generations, or spices that we grew up around.

    In the US, there’s now a plethora of brands catering to people like this, alongside citizens of South Asian heritage and the wider American population, sharing a taste of the subcontinent’s best offerings and entrepreneurial talent.

    Here are some of the trailblazing US brands championing South Asian culture (shoutout to culture magazine The Juggernaut, a media platform dedicated to stories and news about the South Asian diaspora that showcases many of these startups):

    Diaspora Co.

    diaspora co
    Courtesy: Diaspora Co.

    Since we’re talking about spices, Diaspora Co. is a company I would have loved to have in the UK. Founded in 2017 by then-23-year-old Indian expat Sana Javeri Kadri, it sources single-origin spices straight from India and Sri Lanka, paying farmers four times the commodity price on average. It’s an elevated experience for South Asian cuisine fanatics – almost what I’d call specialty spice – with everything from ground varieties and whole spices to dried chillies, jaggery and tea.

    Diaspora Co. also sells merch and accessories like chai caddies and masala dabbas (spice boxes found in every Indian kitchen), alongside gorgeously illustrated, bright tins of proprietary spice blends. Each individual spice has tasting notes and details about the harvest year and origin too. Plus, there’s a really neat Build Your Own Spice Shelf feature to personalise your rack.

    You can buy Diaspora Co.’s products online via its website for $10 per pack.

    Brooklyn Delhi

    brooklyn delhi
    Courtesy: Brooklyn Delhi

    Founded 10 years ago by first-generation Indian American Chitra Agrawal and her now-husband Ben Garthus, Brooklyn Delhi is a condiment company putting outstanding vegan twists on traditional Indian sauces like tikka masala, cashew butter masala and coconut cashew korma. On top of that, it offers two hot sauces based on Indian chillies, alongside chutneys and achaars (South Asian pickles).

    The company uses clean-label formulations for its preservative-free products, with all ingredients being carefully sourced to suit each recipe (down to the kind of coconut cream and variety of mangoes). It’s also been endorsed by Canadian Indian influencer Lilly Singh – need I say more?

    You can buy Brooklyn Delhi’s products online via its website for $10 per pack.

    Paro

    paro
    Courtesy: Paro

    One of the newer brands on this list, Paro was founded by Umaimah Sharwani earlier this year, named after her mother. The company makes Pakistani-inspired meal kits that can be prepared in under 30 minutes, with both of the dishes being vegan.

    Sharwani. who moved to New York from Pakistan for her education, always wanted a piece of her mother’s cooking, carrying ziplocked boxes of her lentil and spice mixes. Now, she’s spreading the love with meal kits for Kitchari and Masoor Dal. And if you’re not vegan, there’s a South Asian chilli crisp named after the South Asia tempering technique, Tarka, which uses ghee.

    You can buy Paro’s meal kits online via its website for $10 per pack.

    Bollygood

    bollygood
    Courtesy: Bollygood

    If you’ve ever had nimbu paani, you know that stuff hits different. To help you get a taste of the real thing, Bollygood makes a range of sparkling drinks inspired by the classic Indian lemonade, which is light on ingredients but heavy on flavour.

    It was founded in 2021 by Maxie Henderson, who grew up in Canada in a South Asian household, spending summers visiting her grandparents in India. She launched the brand after realising there was a lack of representation of Indian beverages in US supermarkets. Bollygood has two flavoured lemonades and limeades that pack more than a punch, with the bubbles taking the refreshment to the next level.

    You can buy Bollygood’s products online via its website or Amazon, or in select US retailers for $29.99 for a 12-pack.

    Peepal People

    peepal people
    Courtesy: Peepal People

    South Asians love – and are known for – their heat. With that in mind, Alyzeh Rizvi and her husband Ahmer Zaidi launched Peepal People, a fermented hot sauce company, in 2020. It’s an ode to their Pakistani roots with a nod to their American home. Hot sauces aren’t something you find in Pakistan as a traditional food. Americans, though, love a good hot sauce. So they decided to blend Pakistani flavours into an American condiment for a beautiful marriage of culinary cultures.

    Peepal People – named after the fig tree native to the subcontinent – offers three hot sauces, with a milder green chilli base, a fruity and versatility yellow chilli variant, and the extra-spicy red chilli version with bhut jholakia (ghost pepper).

    You can buy Peepal People’s products online via its website, or in select US retailers for $12 per sauce.

    Kanira

    kanira
    Courtesy: Kanira

    Snacking is ingrained in South Asian food culture, and bringing a piece of that to the US is Vishal Ramakrishnan with his biscuit brand Kanira. The company makes healthful vegan biscuits (cookies, if you’re American) with ingredient sourcing and quality a high priority. It champions millets as an environmentally friendly and farmer-supporting food group – these require two to three times less water than grains like oats, wheat and corn, and can withstand higher temperatures.

    The clean-label biscuits come in three flavours, all with a gluten-free base. They’re packed with prebiotic fibre and 4g of plant protein per serving, with half the sugar and carbs found in conventional biscuits.

    You can buy Kanira’s products online via its website for $19.99 for a three-pack.

    Bonus: Mango People

    mango people
    Courtesy: Mango People

    Okay, so this isn’t a food brand, but it’s a fantastic cosmetics company that we had to include. Growing up in Canada, Sravya Adusumilli struggled to find makeup that reflected her skin colour, and realised it’s a wider problem faced by the South Asian community in North America. So she launched Mango People in September 2020.

    The brand’s name is a direct translation of the Hindi term for ‘common man’, with vegan makeup products inspired by Ayurveda and powered by adaptogens. The company claims it’s carbon neutral and its products are “infinitely recyclable”, given the packaging is made from recycled aluminium.

    You can buy Mango People’s products online via its website or at Sephora.

    The post Beyond the Ethnic Aisle: 6 Vegan-Friendly US Brands Championing South Asian Culture appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Letter from India: Stop World Health Organization’s “Pandemic Preparedness” Tyranny

    The global pandemic preparedness accord (‘pandemic treaty’) currently being put in place by the World Health Organization (WHO) will pave the way for “a fascist approach to societal management.” The beneficiaries will be unscrupulous corporations and investors whom the COVID‐19 response served well. This will result in the loss of human rights and individual freedom.

    So says Dr David Bell, a clinical and public health physician with a PhD in population health and former WHO scientific and medical officer. The treaty represents a terrifying power grab that, if successful, will give the WHO a central directing role and monopoly power in global health governance.

    As currently drafted, the treaty will hand the WHO the authority to order measures, including significant financial contributions by individual states, lockdowns, travel restrictions, forced medical examinations and mandatory vaccinations during a public health emergency of its own declaring.

    The WHO will have sole and extensive power to declare Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC) for any potential or real threat for extended areas, whether these threats are biological, climate or environment related. And it will do so without proper proof and solely decide measures and medical substances to be imposed on the public without informed consent.

    Its powers will also include the official censorship of information, including free speech — views opposing the official narrative put out by the WHO ­— and it will be accountable to no national parliament or be limited by any constitutional safeguards.

    A group of prominent lawyers, doctors and concerned citizens have written to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of Health and Family Welfare Shri Mansukh L Mandaviya urging them to reject the WHO’s global pandemic treaty. The signatories are listed at the end of this article, and the 10-page letter can be accessed in full with all relevant links and references on the Awaken India website: WHO Pandemic Treaty Ultra Vires of the Constitution).

    The WHO released a Zero Draft of the WHO CA+ (this ‘pandemic treaty’ is now officially known as an ‘accord’) with 38 Articles on 1 February 2023 and, subsequently, another draft with 41 Articles on 2 June 2023. The accord marks a fundamental change in how the WHO will function. It seeks secretively, behind closed doors, sweeping powers under its director general.

    The signatories make clear that, under the proposed accord, the WHO can, at will, call a pandemic, declare a PHEIC and then take over the authority of national governments to detain citizens, restrict their travel, require them to have vaccine passports (forced testing and vaccination) and increase social media censorship. The accord would also operate as a ‘framework convention’ that’s on-going, year after year, indefinitely. It facilitates a dictatorship role for the WHO as it moves to acquire unfettered power.

    Two instruments, the accord itself and amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005, are designed to operate in parallel to give draconian powers to the WHO. Both texts irremediably entail the transfer to the WHO of the power to threaten health freedom, thereby representing a fundamental threat to national, medical and bodily autonomy.

    In their letter, the authors state that the WHO is an external, unelected body, which may not and cannot be appointed to such a dictatorship position. During the COVID-19 event, the WHO’s role in facilitating medical tyranny was clear to see.

    It advocated enforced lockdowns, which destroyed the livelihoods of millions in India and across the world and created a surge in mental health problems. It shut down schools, putting back the education of a generation. It promoted incompletely tested and unapproved vaccines under EUA (Emergency Use Authorisation) that despite the claims of ‘safe and effective’ where nothing of the sort and caused a sharp rise in spike protein-induced heart and brain disease.

    If adopted at the 77th World Health Assembly in May 2024 by a simple majority vote, the ‘pandemic treaty’ will come into force within 12 months for all countries, unless a country proactively files rejections or reservations within a 10-month period.

    The letter to the prime minister and the health minister states that the accord and those pushing it are:

    Manifestly violative of Fundamental Rights of the citizens of India and, therefore, Ultra Vires of the Indian Constitution. In their very intent, they cancel the fundamental right to bodily autonomy and integrity, through mandating medical procedures, coercion and further grossly illegal acts.

    The letter adds:

    This is a breathtaking and terrifying onslaught on fundamental civil liberties. It must be understood as fundamental, that the negation of bodily integrity of any human being means the loss of all human rights.

    In making its point, the letter refers to the Nuremberg Code (1947) by stating:

    The consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights resumed this ban against unintentional experimentation in its 1966 text, which states: no one may be subjected without his consent to medical or scientific experiment.

    It also references the Geneva statement for doctors (1948):

    I will respect the autonomy and dignity of my patient. I will not use my medical knowledge to infringe human rights and civil liberties, even under force. I will keep absolute respect for human life, from conception. I will consider my patient’s health as my first concern.

    The signatories note that there is little alternative but to jettison the WHO from national life and implore the prime minister and the health minister to act to uphold the sovereignty of India and the rights of every citizen.

    They add that unelected, unaccountable and largely unknown delegates from 194 countries meet in Geneva during World Health Assembly meetings, as they did in 2022 when they adopted amendments to the IHR. The process is fraught with secrecy, autocracy and impending tyranny, blatantly devoid of any transparent, democratic process.

    These country delegates are unelected and do not represent the people of their country. The signatories ask:

    How can they negotiate on behalf of nations, let alone an international/global health regulation binding on 194 countries?

    If the ‘global pandemic treaty’ is forced through, we could see perpetual lockdowns. At the same time, corporate interests will dominate. Pandemics will become self-sustaining by creating a bureaucracy whose existence will depend on them.

    People will be at the mercy of the police and bureaucrats who will be immune to any penalty for any acts carried out in ‘good faith’. These acts could take the form of mandatory medical procedures, forced entry into premises, forced isolation and quarantine.

    It was bad enough in 2020 with the full force of the state lined up against the public, especially those who did not agree with COVID policies, but imagine the abuse of power that could occur if the WHO acquires the powers it seeks.

    The seeds of totalitarianism were clear to see with Anthony Fauci saying that he is ‘the science’, former New Zealand PM Jacinda Arden declaring the government as the ‘single source of truth’ and social media companies working hand in glove with the deep state to censor and deplatform prominent figures and world-renowned scientists who questioned the official narrative.

    We saw the suspension of fundamental civil liberties with the threat of state violence on hand, often resulting in citizens being abused by de facto paramilitary police forces for breaching ‘pandemic rules’ that had no scientific basis.

    Governments declared that they were ‘following the science’, but what we saw were inflated death numbers, manipulated data and the fraudulent use of RT-PCR tests to help create the perception of a deadly pandemic in the minds of the public. Readers can consult the online article Stay Home, Save Lives: Uncovering the COVID Deception, which provides insight into the various deceptions that helped instill fear into the global population in 2020.

    The WHO also provided a wrong projection of mortality. The exaggeration caused panic in the population ­— part of a carefully orchestrated ‘fear pandemic’ ­— and paved the way for lockdowns and the mass uptake of vaccines sold to the public based on false claims. The synthetic spike protein of the vaccines has resulted in clotting, bleeding, heart problems and brain blood clotting as well as neurodegenerative problems. And what we are seeing across so many countries since the vaccine rollout is significant excess mortality, which the media is silent about.

    Moreover, the WHO operates within a biopharmaceutical complex, a complicated syndicate that has formed over time, which instructs world health policies. This complex involves the health agencies of national governments, including India, the US and the UK, the World Economic Forum, the Gates Foundation, the Welcome Group and major pharmaceutical companies. Revolving door arrangements between these organisations have resulted in regulatory capture.

    Researcher and campaigner Yohan Tengra of the Awaken India Movement conducted a two-year investigation into how this works in India. Through his research, he exposed the billionaire cartel that controlled India’s COVID-19 Task Force. Tengra listed not just the names of those who sat on this task force, but he also detailed how they are financially connected to the pharmaceutical-vaccine industry.

    The task force was responsible for the aggressive push to lockdown, mandatory mask requirements, forced testing of asymptomatic people, dropping ivermectin from the national protocol, suppressing vaccine adverse events and much more.

    Tengra also exposed how India’s prominent public health personalities, who regularly appeared in the media and on TV, are connected to the Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Welcome Trust, USAID, the World Bank and other aspects of the global deep state.

    We have every right to be concerned about a ‘pandemic treaty’ shaped by powerful interests with stakes in closing down economies (see the online article Systemic Collapse and Pandemic Simulation by Fabio Vighi), mandatory vaccination programmes and digital surveillance who are all too willing to strip away our fundamental rights for their own gain.

    The letter to India’s prime minister and the minister of health makes clear that the WHO’s massive conflict of interest should disqualify it from any role in world health. 

     Signatories:

    Dr. Jacob Puliyel, Delhi, MD, MRCP, MPhil, Paediatrician and Visiting Faculty International

    Prashant Bhushan, New Delhi, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India

    Colin Gonsalves, New Delhi, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India

    Nilesh Ojha, Mumbai, President – Indian Bar Association, Advocate Bombay High Court and Supreme Court of India, Human Rights Activist

    Author Dr. Amitav Banerjee, Pune, MD, Formerly Epidemiologist, Indian Armed Forces

    Dr Aseem Malhotra, London (Overseas Citizen of India), MBChB, MRCP. Consultant Cardiologist

    Aruna Rodrigues, Mhow, Lead Petitioner: GMO PIL in the Supreme Court and Member Iridescent Blue Fish (IBF)

    Dr. Donthi Narasimha Reddy, Hyderabad, Public Policy Expert and Campaigner

    Dr. Megha Consul, Gurugram, Paediatrics, Senior Consultant, Neonatologist

    Dr. Pravin Chordia, Pune, MD Surgeon

    Dr. Lalitkumar Anande, Mumbai, MBBS, PG Diploma in Clinical Research

    Dr. Vijay Raghava, Bangalore, MBBS Dr. Veena Raghava, Bangalore, MBBS, DA

    Dr. Kuldeep Kumar, Haridwar, MBBS MS (GENERAL SURGERY) Dr. Praveen Saxena, Hyderabad, Radiologist & Clinical metal toxicologist, MBBS, DMRD Osmania

    Dr. Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury, Faridabad, Ph.D (Diabetes)

    Dr. Gautam Das, Kolkata, MBBS, General Physician

    Saraswati Kavula, Hyderabad, Documentary Filmmaker & Freelance Journalist, Awaken India Movement

    Bhaskaran Raman, Mumbai, Professor, Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Advocate

    Ishwarlal S. Agarwal, Mumbai Advocate

    Tanveer Nizam, Mumbai

    Dr. Susan Raj, Chattisgrah, BSc Nurse, MSW(M&P), Doctorate Humanities, Behavior Specialist

    Jagannath Chaterjee, Bhubhaneshwar, Social Activist

    Dr. Abhay Chedda, Mumbai, BHMS, CCAH, FCAH

    Dr. Gayatri Panditrao, Pune, Homeopathic Physician, BHMS, PGDEMS

    Dr. Rashmi Menon, Mumbai, BHMS, ChT

    Rossamma Thomas, Pala, Kottayam, Kerala, Freelance Journalist

    Ambar Koiri, Mumbai, Awaken India Movement

    Dr. G Prema, Tamil Nadu, Classical Homeopath, Aasil Health Care

    Dr. S. G. Vombatkere, Mysuru, Human Rights Activist Advocate

    Anand Singh Bahrawat, Indore, High Court of Indore Advocate

    Vijay Kurle, Mumbai

    Advocate L Shunondo Chandiramani, Indore, High Court of Indore

    The post Letter from India: Stop World Health Organization’s “Pandemic Preparedness” Tyranny first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • “Free-Speech Absolutist” Musk Is Abetting Modi’s Suppression of Voices in India

    Imagine waking up one morning to find out that the voice of your organization has been silenced. More uncanny is the fact that this suppression happened in the United States, a place we hold close to our hearts and where we believed, until recently, that free speech was valued. But that’s exactly what happened to us, Rasheed Ahmed of the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and Sunita Viswanath…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Inside India’s Largest Plant-Based Dairy M&A: Why Nourish You Acquired One Good

    plant based milk india
    5 Mins Read

    In what is one of the largest acquisitions in the Indian plant-based sector, superfood player Nourish You has acquired vegan dairy brand One Good. Ahead of a planned Series A next year, co-founder and CFO Radhika Datt pulls the curtain on the why and how of the deal.

    Hyderabad-based superfood maker Nourish You has acquired 100% of Bangalore-based plant-based dairy startup One Good for an undisclosed sum, the largest M&A deal in India’s booming alt-dairy sector. The move strengthens Nourish You’s position as one of the leading businesses in the space, leveraging One Good’s strong online presence to complement its increasing retail footprint.

    The acquisition was conducted via a share swap and sees One Good’s co-founders Abhay Rangan and Radhika Datt obtain a minority stake in the parent company. Speaking to Green Queen, Datt confirms that while the brands will remain separate, operations will merge and there will be restructuring involved.

    It’s big news for India’s biggest plant-based market. According to the alt-protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) India, nearly two-thirds (65.8%) of vegan companies are focused on dairy alternatives (with almond milk brands topping the list). And more Indians are familiar with plant-based dairy (49%) than meat (28.5%) or eggs (19%).

    “One Good’s journey is revolutionary. It was born with a vision of creating the next big dairy company, devoid of animals,” said Nourish You co-founder Krishna Reddy, who added that the deal helps Nourish You evolve “from being a superfood brand to a plant-based brand”.

    one good
    Courtesy: Nourish You

    New roles, no layoffs

    Founded in 2015, Nourish You has an extensive range of superfood grains and products, including millets, seeds, mueslis, snack bars, speciality flours and quinoa – it prides itself on mainstreaming the latter in India. The company, backed by investors like Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath, actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Darwinbox’s Rohit Chennamaneni, and Triumph Group’s Y Janardhana Rao (among others), also ventured into the alt-dairy world with a range of millet milks earlier this year.

    So it makes sense that One Good was on its radar. Beginning as a door-to-door delivery service, the company (founded in 2016 as Goodmylk) has ridden the success of its flagship cashew-oat-millet milk, expanding into vegan alternatives to ghee, butter, mayo and peanut curd (it’s India’s leading dairy-free yoghurt brand). As it grew, it acquired other plant-based businesses to broaden its portfolio: nutrition brand Pro2Fit, and cheese makers Katharos and Angelo Vegan Cheese.

    Now, with the Nourish You acquisition, the two South Indian startups will hope to consolidate their foothold in India’s non-dairy sector. It’s something One Good has been exploring for a while, as Datt explains: “As a brand, we have been on the lookout for the right strategic partnership for some time now. I think it’s a conversation that is constantly being had. Nourish You has been aware of our work since our inception, and has also entered the vegan space through their millet milk. So when this conversation came about, it was a natural fit.”

    nourish you
    Courtesy: Nourish You

    Datt confirms that there were no redundancies as a result of the acquisition. “The teams complemented each other well and there was immediate synergy,” she notes. All of One Good’s senior management employees, meanwhile, have assumed titled roles in the new entity. She is now a co-founder and the chief financial officer, Rangan is a co-founder too, and (former COO) Dhivakar Sathyamurthy takes up the position of supply chain head.

    “We will continue to remain two separate brands,” adds Datt. “One Good’s mission of providing affordable, accessible Indian vegan products will endure. There is vertical and horizontal integration on product lines, which will increase economic efficiency. Overall, customers can expect to see both brands in more channels, and at competitive prices.”

    Path to price parity and upcoming Series A

    That last point is pertinent. Despite dairy’s dominance in the plant-based sector, cost remains a key hurdle for many Indians – a GFI India and Ipsos survey revealed that it’s the least influential reason for buying milk alternatives in India. Plant-based milks can be two to four times more expensive than cow’s milk, which is expected, given the country is home to the largest dairy industry in the world.

    But One Good has made massive strides here. Its cashew-oat-millet milk is already much cheaper than most oat and almond competitors, selling at half the price. And in its home city of Bangalore, it continues to offer door-to-door delivery of fresh milk – while obviously hard to scale, this is where it achieved price parity with conventional dairy a year ago, with a litre of its plant-based milk available for ₹59 (70 cents).

    Datt describes how a combination of Nourish You’s growing retail presence – its products are available in over 2,500 stores nationwide – and One Good’s strong D2C engagement positions can make them the “go-to destination for innovative plant-based alternatives in India”.

    “We have years of hard work coming up to really leverage the scale and operational excellence of Nourish You to our advantage,” she says. “We are excited about expanded operations, working with new talent and delivering a combined value to the consumers.”

    vegan milk india
    Courtesy: One Good

    Nourish You certainly does have the platform – it’s aiming to close the fiscal year with a revenue of ₹30 crores ($3.6M), and aims to reach the ₹100 crore ($12M) mark by 2025. And given the dominance of the ₹250 crore ($30M) Indian alt-dairy market – it’s valued 2.5 times higher than plant-based meat – it will be hoping to grow exponentially. Plus, there’s government support: the country’s Science and Engineering Research Board (part of the Ministry of Science and Technology) has announced a funding call centred on making millet-based meat, egg and dairy proteins.

    All this makes its case for its upcoming fundraiser stronger. Having raised $2M in seed funding earlier this year, Nourish You aims to secure ₹60 crores ($7.2M) in its Series A round, which is expected to close by mid-2024.

    Next year will also see One Good hoping to expand its presence in more stores and widen the reach of its cost-competitive fresh milk. Additionally, apart from household consumers, it wants to be available to more institutions. “The funds will be used to expand our distribution for sure,” says Datt. “Through One Good’s warehouses, we’re currently already present in all five major cities in India, but our footprint in these locations needs to increase. We’ll want to invest more in offline presence and customer awareness.”

    After capping off a big 2023, it seems Nourish You is embarking on One more Good year.

    The post Inside India’s Largest Plant-Based Dairy M&A: Why Nourish You Acquired One Good appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Indian Ministries Set to Approve Mega-project that Will Destroy Uncontacted Island People

    The Shompen live in the rainforests of Great Nicobar. If their forest and rivers are destroyed, they will be too. © ASI

    Authorities in India have vowed to press ahead with a controversial mega-development project, despite experts’ warnings that it will destroy a unique uncontacted tribe.

    The $5bn mega-port planned for the Indian Ocean island of Great Nicobar, plus associated ‘development’ such as a new city, defense base, industrial zones, airport and power station, will utterly destroy the Shompen people. They are one of India’s two tribes who shun contact with outsiders, alongside their neighbors, the better-known Sentinelese.

    Numerous experts including 87 former high level Indian government officials and civil servants have called on the government to abandon the scheme. Since the Shompen cannot give their Free, Prior and Informed Consent to it, it is illegal under international law.

    The Shompen are one of India’s two tribes who shun contact with outsiders, alongside their neighbors, the better-known Sentinelese. © Survival

    The project does not yet have all the necessary approvals, but in a series of briefings the Indian authorities have made it clear that they will be pressing ahead with the project. They plan to transform the Shompen’s small island home into the “Hong Kong of India,” with a new city of 650,000 people just one of the project’s components.

    Caroline Pearce, Director of Survival International, said today: “This project will devastate the Great Nicobar rainforest, where the Shompen live, and with it the Shompen themselves. They survived the 2004 tsunami, but there is simply no way they can survive this catastrophic destruction of their entire world.

    “Not only will their livelihood be destroyed, but like all uncontacted peoples, they can be wiped out by diseases to which they have no immunity. It will be a genocide. We call on the Indian government to urgently scrap this scheme – it will destroy the Shompen if it goes ahead.”

    Note: The 100 – 400 Shompen live only on Great Nicobar Island, as nomadic hunter-gatherers. They have lived there since time immemorial, and survived the 2004 tsunami, whose epicenter was close by. Some Shompen have limited contact with Indian officials, but the majority live uncontacted in the forests.

    The post Indian Ministries Set to Approve Mega-project that Will Destroy Uncontacted Island People first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • What Do Asian Consumers Want From Plant-Based Meat? 4 Startup Founders Spill All.

    10 Mins Read

    At a major APAC food tech conference in Singapore last month, I spoke to four alt-meat founders from India, China, the Philippines and Australia to find out what Asian consumers want from plant-based meat products.

    Last month, as part of the Singapore International Agri-Food Week (SIAW), the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit organized by Rethink Events welcomed over 1,000 global leaders to meet and learn about Asia’s agri-food system to “accelerate the transition to a climate-smart food system” as organizer Rethink Events states on the event website.

    As part of the week’s programming, I chaired a discussion about the ‘Healthier Proteins Shaping the Future for Plant-Based Innovation’ on stage. Joining me were four founders and leaders from plant-based meat startups in the APAC region, each representing some of the biggest markets in India, China, the Philippines and Australia, as well as the APAC Science and Technology Director from one of the world’s leading flavour companies.

    Our discussion spanned a range of topics, from how important are clean labels to whether Asian consumers are still actively purchasing these products. We talked about what factors influence decision-making, what new ingredients are being developed in the sector, and what brands can do to build confidence in the nutritional value and overall quality of plant-based products

    Most of all, the question we were trying to answer was: what does the Asian plant-based consumer want? The key takeaway from the discussion is that each Asian market is unique and its consumers have very specific and very different needs.

    The below transcriptions have been edited for clarity and concision.

    Anand Nagarajan, Co-Founder at Shaka Harry on Indian Consumers

    Shaka Harry
    Courtesy: Shaka Harry

    On the Indian plant-based meat consumer: India is not one market. We’ve got 1.4 billion people, so it’s important not to view the Indian market as one ubiquitous market. The relationship to meat is complicated. In terms of who our consumer is, we have a very simple definition: anyone who has an affinity for the taste of meat is the consumer we’re looking for. We are going after the two-thirds of Indians who eat meat. Culturally, a large percentage of the Indian population that still consumes meat would abstain from it for close to 150 days of the year for various reasons. Some people abstain from meat on certain days. Some people will not eat meat at home. Some people only eat meat when they travel. Some people won’t eat meat on festival days. But all these people may want something that’s a familiar taste. This is where we position Shaka Harry.

    On creating products for specific occasions: How do we create salience in a customer’s life, rather than trying to over-intellectualize the conversation? If something needs a lot of education…it won’t scale. We can’t educate a billion people individually. Even if I were to take the 100-200 million high-end consumer market, I can’t sit down and educate every single one of them. Instead, we focus on occasions. How do I win breakfast? How do I win school lunch prep? How do I win at a Saturday family gathering? We’re saying: here’s a very good product, it’s priced well and it is tasty. We’ll give you an occasion for when you need to have this at home. And we find that a far easier method to scale, rather than pursuing micro-markets.

    On whether Indians want healthier products: Do Indian consumers want healthier products? There’s a disconnect between what the consumer tells you they want versus what they’re ready to pay for. When they go into the store, and you give them two products, one being healthier but with a 20-30% price premium, they will choose the value product. That’s what we are seeing. 

    On We have an entire line of clean-label products coming out soon with easy-to-read, natural ingredients. Thanks to consumer insights, we’ve developed a millet range. Millets is something that traditionally Indians have consumed a lot and consumers have very positive connotations about it. But here the point is not to mimic a meat experience. Rather we’re saying: here’s a very good product. We’re going to ‘de-junk’ your regular roti and paratha. We’re taking the gluten out.  We’re adding natural fiber. The initial market response has been fantastic. So de-junking regular meals and giving consumers a superior version of everyday foods is working really well.

    Shaka Harry is a plant protein company based out of India with a range of ready-to-eat products designed for the Indian palate and for Indian cuisines. 

    Astrid Prajogo, Founder and CEO at Haofood on Chinese Consumers

    peanut meat
    Haofood co-founder Astrid Prajogo exhibited the new peanut-based pork dumplings in Berlin | Courtesy: Haofood/LinkedIn

    On the Chinese consumer base: Our consumer base is very interesting. They’re not flexitarian, but they’re gym-goers. So they choose our product because they are looking for specific protein with specific features- that’s one type of consumer that is pretty loyal to us. We also have the forein vegan community. Although not a large group, they have strong purchasing power. They also have a voice, which can be powerful. Finally, we have the local Chinese vegan community as well, they continue to support our products.

    On what Chinese consumers are looking for from meat: We have spent the last couple of years studying how Chinese consumers approach buying meat. Not just plant-based meat, just meat. That’s what we want to understand. And taste is absolutely key, especially umami. China is the land of tasty food, every single part of the country has great-tasting food. So first: taste – they demand great taste. Second is safety. McKinsey published research earlier this year that revealed that for Chinese consumers, health and safety are the most important. Part of safety is for a product not to contain ingredients that consumers deem less safe, like methylcellulose or added gums so our definition of clean-label is free from added artificial ingredients, be it binders or perseveratives. We combine different types of plant proteins and we work with fruit fibres, so we can make a clean-label product where the cost is actually reasonable- we’re down to under $3.5 per kilogram.

    Haofood is a Shanghai-based specialist in Asian plant-based meat designed for Asian applications.

    Stephen Michael, Co-Founder and CEO at WTH Foods on Filipino consumers 

    Courtesy WTH Foods

    The Philippines is a pretty sizable country- we have over 110 million Filipinos, and it’s a very meat heavy culture. As a predominantly Catholic country, we don’t have any dietary restrictions, so I’m jealous of my Thai and Malaysian friends whose vegetarian market exists already. In the Philippines, it’s almost non-existent and that’s what we are up against. Culturally and traditionally, a lot of dishes are meat-based, so putting out a plant-based meat product might not be the best idea. We’re continuously trying to figure out what the Filipino consumer wants. It seems they see something as healthy when it is local with added functional benefits in terms of beauty or physical aspects. So for example, if plant-based meat products are helpful for slimming, or if eating these products can help radiate beauty- that’s a driver. The entry point for the Filipino market is health, more than whether something is plant-based. Sustainability and animal welfare are very, very far down the list in terms of our consumers adopting plant-based meat.

    When Filipinos think about health, they go for descriptive words like ‘organic’ or ‘cholesterol-free’, ‘low sodium’, ‘low fat’, ‘low sugar. Adding to that, Filipino consumers want their food to be more fortified or to have a unique ingredient like a local oil. For example, we’re trying mungbeans as an additive to respond to that demand- it’s a local and natural ingredient. to add a more local and natural ingredient to that. Consumers want to avoid preservatives and flavor enhancers so they do look at the ingredient list and want a cleaner label as well. For more of our plant-based meats, we fortify with local proteins or local ingredients to give them a more local and healthier profile. 

    There’s actually been a bit of pushback with plant-based meats when we offer Filipino favourites like sisig and sausages and holiday hams, where Filipinos will go for the real thing instead of the plant-based version, which has been a difficult scenario. So we’re done pretending to be meat. Achieving something as close to meat as possible will require that long list of ingredients and our customers are looking at labels, and if they don’t understand certain ingredients, they deem it to be less healthy. So we are actually in the midst of a pivot in terms of products. We are decreasing the number of our ingredients for our second generation of products and we don’t try so hard to be the meat product. I believe in the alternative protein industry and I believe there will be increased demand and need for protein, so we’re looking into high-protein snacks in more shelf-stable formats. The Philippines is an archipelago shipping frozen meat across all the islands is a logistical nightmare. So it’s a triple challenge: how do you ship your products across an archipelago, while making them shelf-stable and reducing the number of ingredients so they can be clean-label?

    WTH Foods is a plant-based alternative protein startup based in Manila.

    Chris Coburn, General Manager APAC at v2food on Australian plant-based meat consumers

    Courtesy: v2food

    On why Australia is different from the rest of Asia: I would say Australia is a little bit different from the rest of Asia, where I think we’re still seeing animal protein as being aspirational. Consumers in the rest of the region are looking to purchase animal products now that there’s more wealth available and a growing middle class. In Australia, as in a number of the developed markets, we’re seeing this trend to be a reducetarian, where people who have reached peak meat consumption are probably looking to come back the other way. If you look at animal consumption per capita in Australia, obviously it’s at levels that are close to the UK and US, unlike the rest of Asia.

    On v2foods’ Australian consumer base: I would say v2food’s consumer base is the conscious consumers, those who are looking to reduce their meat intake, so we have a different challenge to the rest of Asia. Probably half of our retail sales are from this younger demographic -the millennials / the single-income-no-kids / the double-income-no-kids / those coming into families over the next 10 years- those conscious consumers looking to reduce meat consumption and consume alternatives.

    On clean labels: I think from a portfolio point of view, we’re looking at the clean-label issue in two different ways and trying to distinguish from those more indulgent occasions where consumers are looking for that great taste and probably a treat and those everyday occasions where people are looking for more healthy options. In the first group of our products, we have burgers and sausages, and we’re competing against animal protein products which are highly processed, and for those, we are really trying to drive taste as the priority for our target consumers. Our biggest fear is that sometimes our competitors’ products are not good, and consumers are having a bad experience. So we really feel like taste is important for the category of products like sausages, burgers, and nuggets. 

    v2food is Australia’s number-one plant-based meat company.

    Ai Mey Chuah, APAC Science & Technology Director at Givaudan Singapore on Asian Consumer Tastes 

    Courtesy: Givaudan

    Ultimately for our customers, the most important thing is taste. If their products don’t taste good, and don’t look appealing, they won’t get a repurchase by the consumers. So in our business, what we do is customize the solutions to meet the needs of their consumers from the regions that they are marketing their products to. 

    I would say that in APAC cost is still a very important factor. So while for our Europe and US business, clean-label and natural solutions are very important, for the APAC region cost is still the determining factor- we help our clients change their label to be more cost-effective, rather than clean-label, as our [clean-label] solutions tend to be more expensive. 

    Some markets like China have well-educated consumers who don’t like artificial ingredients or additives in their products, so when it comes to replacing ingredients like methylcellulose, Asia is slowly gaining traction and we have products in our portfolio like citrus fibre that can act synergistically with certain proteins to actually provide that texture that is meat-like, juicy and succulent. 

    Givaudan is a global leader in fragrance and flavour; the company develops tastes and scents for food companies all over the world.

    The post What Do Asian Consumers Want From Plant-Based Meat? 4 Startup Founders Spill All. appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • British Colonialism Oppressed My Family in India. I See Palestine in This Frame.

    Such is the vampiric power of empire to return from the dead, that more than 75 years after European colonizers were largely kicked out of Asia and Africa, there is a new effort to delegitimize the terms “decolonization” and “anti-colonial.” Just 20 days into the genocide Israel unleashed on the people of Palestine, The Atlantic, now edited by a former Israeli prison guard, informed us “the…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Submarines Resurgent

    Submarines are undergoing a renaissance in the Asia-Pacific region. Excluding mini-submarines, approximately 230 are in service. With a growing naval superpower present in the Asia-Pacific region, demand for submarines is expected to increase, as a ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) spokesperson explained, they have “…the capability to occupy large numbers of opposing forces through their mere […]

    The post Submarines Resurgent appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Vaulting Ambition

    Airframers in the Asia Pacific region are transitioning away from building under license to developing their own platforms. The Asia Pacific region is the home to several airframers who cut their teeth in their early years with license manufacture of military platforms. Over the past three decades, there has been dramatic progress in the growth […]

    The post Vaulting Ambition appeared first on Asian Military Review.

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  • The Asia F-List: How Fossil Fuel Companies are Gaslighting Asians with Greenwashing Campaigns

    asia f list
    6 Mins Read

    A new report by marketing activism group Clean Creatives explores how Asia’s fossil fuel industry is failing communities in the region, using greenwashing techniques to shift the blame from its climate impacts. These include loyalty credit cards, lotteries, prize draws, social media campaigns, and PR initiatives.

    Clean Creatives, a global initiative to end the communication, marketing and PR sector’s links with the fossil fuel industry, has published its Asia F-List. It documents the companies that choose to keep working with fossil fuel firms despite the glaring evidence of their impact on ecological destruction.

    In 2021, for instance, fossil fuel companies were responsible for 90% of all carbon emissions globally. The impact of climate change is obviously being felt everywhere, but the Global South is much more adversely affected, with the Global North being responsible for a higher amount of fossil fuel emissions. In Asia, Singapore is heating up two times faster than the rest of the world, cities are facing alarmingly rising sea levels, and pollution contributes to nearly 2.4 million deaths in India and 2.2 million in China each year.

    However, Asia is the fastest-growing region for fossil fuel production and consumption, and its contribution to the planet’s GHG emissions has doubled from 22% in 1990 to 44% in 2019 – faster than the global average.

    The Asia F-List covers Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. China was excluded due to “the unique corporate ownership structures and state of media transparency” making it difficult to evaluate the role of fossil fuels there.

    It found that British agency WPP has the most contracts with fossil fuel firms than any other holding company (22), followed by New York-headquartered IPG (9). In terms of independent agencies, Indonesia’s Kiroyan Partners has the most contracts at nine.

    Indonesia is also the country with the highest number of fossil fuel contracts, with 15. It’s followed by India (11), Thailand (9), Japan (8), Singapore (6), Philippines (6), Malaysia (5), Korea (4), Vietnam (2) and Hong Kong (2).

    The report divided campaigns by major polluters into two categories: incentives to buy more, and ‘purpose-washing’.

    Credit cards and giveaways to incentivise buying more fuel

    fossil fuel greenwashing
    Courtesy: Shell/Denko/IndianOil

    Oil and gas companies in Asia use various techniques to reward customer loyalty. In India, for example, “almost every major fuel provider has multiple credit card schemes with different banks, vehicle manufacturers and non-banking financial companies”. When customers spend on fuel, they earn reward points that can be used on future fuel and other purchases – and many sign up for these cards based on their existing relationship with banks.

    These cards exist in multiple countries, including Thailand, the Philippines and Japan. In the latter, Cosmo Oil’s Eco Card claims to “convert brand loyalty to environmental action” by donating 0.1% of your fuel or car wash bill, plus ¥500 ($3.64), every year to an environmental conservation fund. “Promoting these cards as a sustainable solution could just be more greenwashing,” the report states.

    In addition, some companies use prize campaigns and TV events to incentivise loyalty, “an easy PR tactic for oil and gas companies to improve their reputation and distract from other issues”. In Thailand, for example, Shell organised a 130th Anniversary Mega Lucky Draw through which consumers could win a Porsche car, BMW motorbikes, gold bars, gold necklaces and fuel gift cards – provided they make a purchase at a Shell station.

    In Myanmar, to celebrate its 10th anniversary, Denzo’s Lucky Draw programme hosted a giveaway of BMW and Nissan cards, which was broadcast as a celebrity-hosted live TV event with an awards ceremony. To enter the competition, customers needed to spend money on fuel, with one entry for every 10,000 Kyat ($5) spent.

    And in the Philippines, Caltex (the APAC brand name for Chevron) organised a Liter Lottery campaign, offering people a free tank of gas if the last digit of the metre matched the last digit of their car’s license plate, leading to a 233% increase in full tank purchases and 198% sales rise. Another fuel company, Seaoil, launched a nationwide campaign – now in its sixth year – where one could win a free lifetime supply of gas.

    Purpose-washing customers to distract from fossil fuels’ climate damage

    Fossil fuel companies use marketing and PR campaigns to lead people into believing they’re doing good for the planet and society, which encourages customers to feel personally responsible for the climate crisis and take individual action to clean up the sector’s mess.

    In South Korea, GS Caltex and ad agency Ideot created an English-language workbook to promote consumer-focused solutions in line with the company’s ‘green supply chain’. They replaced normal text with case studies to show how people can help the environment, distributing the workbook in bookstores and study cafés.

    India’s Adani Group released a #ICan campaign in 2021 to urge people to lower their climate impact by asking questions like “Can you lower your carbon footprint?” and “Can you be a partner in fighting global warming?”, deflecting from answering those questions itself. “This type of greenwashing is so insidious and deceptive that it’s even won Adani multiple awards,” states the report.

    In Japan, ENEOS launched a broadcast radio show called For Our Earth: One By One to spread awareness about decarbonisation and recycling. Tapping actress Akane Hotta as the host, it sees celebrities learn how we can meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Clean Creatives writes: “This seems to be an example of virtue signalling — indicating ENEOS’ values without considering whether the company is behaving in service of them.”

    Indonesia’s Pertamina, meanwhile, runs an Eco RunFest every year, claiming that ticket purchases go towards an initiative helping rural areas use clean energy and improve welfare. But to enter, people need to make a fuel purchase. The company claims that by buying “higher-quality and environmentally friendly fuel”, people can use reward points to get a voucher code and register for the event.

    “Their claim that fossil fuels are environmentally friendly is greenwash, but the requirement for people to purchase fuel before participating in an event billed to be “Healthy for Earth” is misleading marketing at its finest,” the report says.

    Moreover, some companies organise purpose-washing field trips to show they’re going to local villages and giving back to the less fortunate. In 2018, Shell, Chevron and the international NGO Pact in Myanmar set up the Ahlin Yaung campaign to fund renewable energy and solar projects in 70 villages without electricity, despite Shell being expected to spend $1.2B in offshore exploration and making a profit of $20.7M before tax in 2021 (which is when it ceased operations in the country).

    Similarly, PTT and marketing agency CJ Worx planted mangroves in three Thai provinces to restore ecosystems damaged by climate change, “which is ironic since fossil fuel projects would have contributed to that situation”.

    Greenwashing the TikTok generation

    Fossil fuel corporations are also using social media to go viral among younger populations. In March last year, Caltex and ad firm VMLY&R announced the #CaltexUnstoppableStar rap challenge, featuring rappers from multiple Asian countries. It released a rap song and encouraged people to sing along and create their own videos using AR filters to win prizes like Caltex’s Starcash reward points, a fuel system cleaner and an iPad. Caltex says the campaign received 650 million views within the first 10 days.

    In the Philippines, Flying V released two social media challenges. The first, Mr. and Mrs. Flying V, was a TikTok dance challenge inviting people to share videos of them dancing at the gas station, while the Lipad Jump Shot photo challenge asked consumers to share images of them jumping next to a station. But to participate, they had to make a fuel purchase of over PHP 100 ($1.79), with one entry per purchase, encouraging people to spend more to up their chance of winning a PHP 10,000 ($179) cash prize.

    The report makes for grim reading, but despite that, its authors believe change is imminent. It cites two agencies that have signed its Clean Creatives pledge, Vero and On Purpose, which joined forces to build a sustainability-focused business pipeline between India and Southeast Asia.

    The authors conclude: “We believe we’re at the beginning of a significant cultural shift in the industry and world. People and companies across Asia are advocating for better sustainability regulations, disclosures and education and new alliances are making sustainability a requirement in the marketing and communications industry.”

    The post The Asia F-List: How Fossil Fuel Companies are Gaslighting Asians with Greenwashing Campaigns appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • ‘The Centre of Challenges & Solutions’: 7 Alt-Protein Takeaways from GFI APAC’s State of the Industry Report 2023

    gfi state of the industry
    7 Mins Read

    The Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC’s first State of the Industry report highlights the funding rollercoaster that is alt-protein, Singapore’s reputation as an innovation launchpad, barriers to the adoption of plant-based meat, and the receptiveness to blended meat products. Plus, a separate report by GFI showcases the potential of sidestream valorisation.

    GFI APAC launched its first State of the Industry report last week, showcasing alt-protein’s tremendous potential and heightened challenges in Asia-Pacific. The think tank explores the investment gap in the sector, describes the importance of scaling up and presents a consumer survey showcasing interesting results and opportunities for alt-protein producers, including those working with blended meat.

    Here are the key takeaways:

    APAC private alt-protein investment reached a high, then fell off a cliff

    gfi state of the industry report
    Courtesy: GFI APAC

    2022 was a record year for alt-protein financing in the region. Public funding increased by 207% from 2021, from $31M to $94M. This sum was actually 37% higher than the all-time total up to 2021 ($68M). The current total ($162M) accounts for 16% of all alt-protein investments globally.

    Similarly, at $551M, private financing was up by 45% year-on-year, surpassing $1B in all-time funding. But the sector was also affected by the global downturn in VC funding, which reached a 13-quarter low, with the first half of 2023 only witnessing $47M in investment.

    After surpassing Australia/New Zealand in funding last year, Singapore has now given way to the Antipodean nations when it comes to investments in the first half of 2023. Australia and New Zealand garnered $20M in funding, followed by South Korea ($13M), mainland China ($8M) and then Singapore ($3M).

    APAC’s business ecosystem is growing rapidly

    alt protein apac
    Courtesy: GFI APAC

    There are now at least 206 startups working with alternative proteins in APAC, with 20 launching just last year. Interestingly, most of these new startups from 2022 are focused on B2B rather than B2C, which is an inversion from earlier years.

    Of the 206, 130 companies belong to the plant-based pillar, 46 in the cultivated meat space, and 30 in fermentation. Australia (45%) leads the region in terms of precision fermentation startups – like Eden Brew, Cauldron and All G Foods – followed by Thailand (27%). Singapore, meanwhile, is home to the highest number of biomass fermentation (39%), cultivated (33%) and plant-based (21%) startups in APAC.

    Singapore is a testbed for R&D exports

    gfi apac
    Courtesy: GFI APAC

    Despite the decline in private funding, Singapore remains a “global testbed” for the region, helping producers incubate, innovate, partner, and export their alt-protein offerings internationally. At least 25 non-local companies have a presence in the island state for R&D and business development, while it’s home to almost a quarter (24%) of all alt-protein startups in APAC.

    Shared R&D facilities and progressive regulatory frameworks are enabling companies to scale up their products and conduct market tests. The country was the first in the world to approve the sale of cultivated meat, and these feats are why its trade minister Alvin Tan dubbed it “the best place in the world for food innovation”.

    Alt-protein needs $10B of investment – per year

    alt protein investment apac
    Courtesy: GFI APAC

    Despite the record public funding numbers, alt-protein’s share of funding is minuscule when looking at it more closely. GFI APAC cited data from the Climate Policy Initiative from 2022, which revealed that only about 3% of all climate finance goes to agrifood systems (that has minutely risen to 4.3% this year).

    According to GFI APAC, alt-protein only represents 0.5% of that share (with APAC making up 0.1%), despite these foods significantly reducing the impact of food on the environment, which accounts for a third of all emissions. For example, a study earlier this year found that veganism can cut emissions, land use and water pollution by 75% compared to meat-rich diets.

    The report estimates that if funding for alt-protein could capture just 8% of the global meat market by 2030, the reduction in GHG emissions would be equivalent to decarbonising 95% of the aviation sector, adding that “unlocking the full benefits” of alternative proteins will require about $10.1B in public funding annually.

    Overcoming scale-up challenges is key

    gfi state of the industry
    Courtesy: GFI APAC

    The report states that there’s an urgent need to address the alt-proteins scale-up barriers, which is key to achieving mass production and price parity with conventional proteins: “Building factories cheaply and proving demand in early markets will help to make scale-up more affordable, easier to finance, and lower risk.”

    Co-manufacturing organisations can further support efficient scaling-up, and Singapore has established the platform for derisking early scale-ups, with companies like Esco Aster and SGProtein leading the way. And while first-movers are exploring the scaling advantages of other APAC countries for later-stage co-manufacturing, there are significant gaps in the region’s scaling capacity. The report says that considerably more alt-protein tech facilities are needed across scales, especially demonstration, first-of-a-kind, and commercially proven plants.

    Consumers want to try more plant-based meat, but barriers keep them at bay

    plant based meat survey asia
    Courtesy: GFI APAC

    The report also published results of a six-country, 5,971-person survey about plant-based meat, dividing participants into sceptics, rejectors, novices, curious, expanders and enthusiasts based on their responses. Thailand seems to be the most receptive to plant-based meat, while Singapore surprisingly has the highest number of sceptics (unlikely to try) and rejectors (who want to lower their alt-meat intake).

    Like the US and Europe, health is the biggest driver of plant-based meat intake for Asian consumers too, followed by taste and affordability. But when it comes to barriers of consumption, this is flipped, as price takes top priority, followed by nutrition and flavour.

    plant based survey asia
    Courtesy: GFI APAC

    If they were more affordable, nutritious and better-tasting, it would increase the number of APAC consumers who eat meat alternatives from 5% to 63%. And 15% of these respondents say they would fully replace conventional meat with plant-based if their concerns are alleviated – highlighting a massive growth opportunity for brands in this space.

    Flexitarians are also key for these companies. Plant-based sceptics and novices are also the groups that consume meat the lowest, while meat intake is trending up for enthusiasts, who are the current buyers and represent higher-income consumers. This means that the people who eat the most plant-based meat also consume conventional meat more often than the rest.

    Blended meat is of high interest – especially to vegan sceptics

    blended meat
    Courtesy: GFI APAC

    Blended meat products – which combine plant-based ingredients and proteins with animal-derived meat – are on the up right now. A majority of consumers (93%) showed at least some interest in these foods, with over half saying they’re very interested.

    Notably, almost two-thirds of sceptics and rejectors showed some interest in blended meat, with nearly a fifth of the latter very interested. Enthusiasts were the most interested, reflecting their wishes for diverse protein options.

    When presented with an option to choose from tofu/tempeh, beans/legumes, plant-based meat and blended meat, the groups that eat vegan meat alternatives the least – sceptics, rejectors and novices – placed blended meat on top, while the former two put plant-based at the bottom. For the rest, plant-based meat leads the way, but blended meat comes second.

    This reflects the potential of blended meat to flip the perception of consumers apprehensive of plant-based meat, and help them move towards lower meat consumption.

    Sidestream valorisation could advance alt-protein

    sidestream valorisation
    Courtesy: GFI

    In a separate report by GFI’s US division, the think tank analysed eight high-volume crop sidestreams in the US, Canada and Mexico to determine which has the highest potential for plant-based, fermented and cultivated protein ingredients.

    Soy meal (commonly used as animal feed), tomato pomace and canola meal were ranked as the crops most ideal for sidestream valorisation to make protein concentrates for plant-based products. Soy meal also ranked as the top crop to upcycle for protein hydrolysates for fermentation and cultured meat media – developing this sidestream could help tackle the cost and scale-up challenges mentioned above.

    For fermentation-based proteins – specifically lignocellulosic-derived sugars – corn stover was earmarked as the most useful sidestream, followed by soy straw, rice hulls and sugarcane trash. All these crops were measured against criteria like production volume and cost, environmental credentials, and functional attributes.

    “We currently produce significant amounts of waste due to low-value utilisation and disposal of things like agricultural residues, processing side chains and food losses generated throughout the supply chain,” said Lucas Eastham, a senior fermentation scientist at GFI. “The valorisation or the upcycling of agricultural and processing side streams presents an opportunity for us to shape the circular bioeconomy, and this will help us reduce waste and increase food production.”

    TLDR: to reach its full potential in APAC, alt-protein needs significantly higher public and private investment, better taste, nutrition and prices, more facilities to derisk scaling up, and higher sidestream valorisation.

    The post ‘The Centre of Challenges & Solutions’: 7 Alt-Protein Takeaways from GFI APAC’s State of the Industry Report 2023 appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Indian Trade Unions Demand Modi Scrap Deal to Replace Palestinian Workers

    Ten major trade unions in India have condemned the government’s “unethical” stance on Gaza and demanded an end to India’s agreement with Israel that would allow companies to hire tens of thousands of Indian workers to replace Palestinian construction workers whose work permits have been revoked since Israel began its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. “Israel is shamelessly escalating its genocidal…

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    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Who is Arming Israel?

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.