Any new journey is always a process of mixed emotions. It starts with excitement and concludes with fulfillment (or at times in frustration). In between it goes through many ups and downs, tensions and relief, obstacles and efforts, meeting schedules and re-scheduling. All this hardship becomes fulfilling if the destination turns out to be as imagined.
Launching a publication is no exception and NuFFooDS Spectrum surely was not. The entire NuFFooDS Spectrum team traversed through this roller-coaster ride of emotions for the past six months to present the first issue and the portal.
We have reached our first destination almost in the middle of the third quarter of 2013. These are difficult times for print media elsewhere in the world, which is battered and bruised with ownership of world giants like The Washington Post changing hands recently. Though India has proved to be an exception to this particular scenario, the general economic scene and prospects in the country appear to be grim.
Thankfully, prospects don’t seem to be bad in the nutraceutical and allied sectors. The sector is growing by leaps and bounds, from $1 billion in 2008 to $1.8 billion in 2013. Industry analysts expect the trade to cross $2 billion mark by 2014 and double it to $4 billion by 2018, thanks to rising awareness of health among the growing middle class with more disposable income and not so thankfully to the growing health issues, as well perennial aspects like under-nourishment and malnutrition, causing several problems, even deaths.
Nutritional imbalances of varied nature, widely prevalent across most segments of population in India, are leading to various health-related risk factors requiring preventive measures. NuFFooDS sector has to play a key role in such a situation, not only to ensure a robust balance sheet but to positively contribute to the nation’s health. By doing so, the industry too will grow and possibly add nutrition to the nation’s economic wealth too.
Meeting industry’s financial targets and social objectives simultaneously is a tight rope walk. A little difficult, but not altogether impossible. A goode regulatory framework can play a crucial role in helping the industry undertake this task. But, for the desired results to bear fruits it is important to watch how players in nutraceuticals perceive the regulator’s role.
Facing the challenging task of growth, to be a global leader in this sector during the current turbulent economic times is a ride on a bumpy road full of potholes. Exchange of ideas, feedback, thinking, learning, knowing, understanding and above all joining hands together to form a chain is need of the hour. This chain will not restrict the sector, but will make it independent and help it to grow freely. NuFFooDS Spectrum is the platform to form such a hand-held chain, to know, analyse, debate and exchange ideas. It is open for all in the sector. It has no specific likes or dislikes. Objectivity and neutrality are going to be the hallmarks of this platform. Every news in the sector will be known here and every issue debated.
“A good newspaper is a nation talking to itself,” said well-know American playwright and essayist Arthur Miller in 1961. Can this principal be made applicable to an industry sector magazine too? With that destination in mind we started our journey. And now, the time has come to know if we have taken the right road. Your feedback will tell us if we are reaching the right destination.