Low Cost Nutritional Supplement

This is a brief abstract of a research project me and my friend Avantika Nair conducted from October 2017-February 2018. We were selected for the CBSE Regional and National Level competitions in Chennai and Delhi respectively.


INTRODUCTION
India Is a Country where more than half of the country’s population do not have access to proper nutrition. The main Reason for this is . This project is a humble attempt to develop a very low cost nutritional supplement for low income groups. Government can also take up this project to supply nutritious drinks to BPL (below poverty line) populations.

WHAT IS WHEY WATER?
Whey Water is a bi-product of cheese and paneer industries which isn’t put to proper use in India (in most industries). AS Dairy Industries are usually small scale industries they don’t have enough capital for it’s processing. In large industries with sufficient capital, Whey water is dried and process to  give whey protein powder . Whey powder is very expensive in markets and is usually used by athletes and other sports persons only. On the other hand small industries with insufficient capital simply pour whey water into the drains. This has it’s own after effects , and leads to perpetuation of algae and eventually water pollution. Whey water contains every nutrient and is a complete food on it’sown . It is very inexpensive as it is a recycled product.


THEORY
In 2008, total production of liquid cheese whey accounted to 187 million metric tons out of which 3.2 million metric tons (1.7%) was utilized by different industries for manufacturing value added products like, whey powder, whey protein concentrates, whey isolates etc. In last six years about 4,100 food and beverage products containing whey protein were introduced in U.S. market. Whey proteins have unique nutritional and functional properties which can be explored to deliver high protein products to consumers.
Whey proteins are present in small quantity but have a high protein efficiency ratio (3.6), net protein utilization (95), biological value (104) and as compared to all other protein sources available they are next to egg protein in terms of nutritive value.
 Whey proteins is a source of many nutrients which are often associated with health benefits, such as enhanced immunity, anticancer properties, as well as antiviral, antimicrobial (iron binding properties) and antihypertensive properties. Minerals like Ca, P, K, Na and Mg are all present as constituent of whey, which are required for normal health and added supplementation in case of GI disorders.
In the course of our project, we have mainly developed two different varieties of whey beverages.
1. Raw Whey Beverage
2. Fermented Whey Beverage


RAW WHEY BEVERAGE
Raw whey water is not very pleasant to drink and has no taste. In the project we added water, sugar/sugar substitutes, flavours and colours to the whey water to make it appeasing and tasty. For longer shelf life whey water needs to be re-pasteurised before adding of flavouring and colouring materials. Whey beverages pasteurized at 70°C for 35 min showed the maximum acceptability after 60 days of storage (refrigerated at 4C under clean conditions without opening)
Composition
• 65% whey water
• 10% sugar
• 23% water
• 1% sodium alginate
• 0.5% sodium benzoate
• 0.40% flavouring (natural)
• 0.10% colouring
Procedure
After obtaining whey water, it is pasteurised at 70C. It is then cooled down and flavouring and colouring are added at 55C. It is immediately sealed and packed and should be kept under refrigeration at 4C.

Shelf Life
The above mentioned process helped us achieve a shelf life of over 45 days for our product.
Total Expenses
Total expenses including production, packaging, storage and transport  was estimated to be around Rs.5 for 1litre.
*wholesale price only

FERMENTED WHEY BEVERAGE
(PRO-BIOTIC)
Whey water contains lactose which can be converted to lactic acid on adding of Lactobacillus bacteria, this converts whey water into a probiotic drink.Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that are good for your health, especially your digestive system. We usually think of these as germs that cause diseases. But your body is full of bacteria, both good and bad. Probiotics are often called "good" or "helpful" bacteria because they help keep your gut healthy.
Lactobacillus: This may be the most common probiotic. It's the one you'll find in yogurt and other fermented foods. Different strains can help with diarrhoea and may help with people who can't digest lactose, the sugar in milk.
Composition
• 65% whey water
• 10% sugar
• 20% water
• 3% Lactobacillus rich Curd
• 2% Natural Flavouring and Colouring substances



Procedure
After obtaining whey water, it is pasteurised at 70C. It is then cooled down and two table spoons of Curd (rich in Lactobacillus) is added with flavouring and colouring at 55C. It is immediately sealed and packed and should be kept under refrigeration at 4C.
Shelf Life
The above mentioned process helped us achieve a shelf life of over 20 days for our product.


BIBILOGRAPHY
1. www.nutritiondata.com
2. www.bodybuilding.com
3. www.omicsonline.org

The Dutch Disease

In economics, the Dutch disease is the apparent causal relationship between the increase in the economic development of a specific sector and a decline in other sectors. The mechanism is that as revenues increase in the growing sector, the given nation's currency becomes stronger compared to currencies of other nations. This results in the nation's other exports becoming more expensive for other countries to buy, and imports becoming cheaper, making those sectors less competitive.

The Dutch Disease is a recent term a came across while scrolling through the internet. It is a situation where when one good is substituted for the other,resulting in reduced value of the former. The same principle can be true if the  two goods are produced by different countries it will result in a reduced value of the country whose goods are no longer consumed. 

In a recent example, The fall of Indian rupee is a case of The Dutch Disease . The fall of rupee actually provides a platform for India to export more and more goods than ever before.The elasticity of Indian exports to rupee is high, as most of the exported goods can be substituted by exports from other countries. This explains why India's exports have underperformed despite strong global growth over the last couple of years. 

Donald Trump's Europe Tour-July 2018

Donald Trump has never been the best President when it comes to foreign relations. First he slams Theresa May for Brexit, then holds her hand and says the countries share a "special" bond. For the past few weeks he has been blaming many US allies like Germany and India for signing big budget deals with Russia. Yesterday at Helsinki, he forgot all of his opinions on Putin and Russia. On the emerging trade war between China and US , Trump keeps claiming he will tax every good from China. But, the unspoken truth is that US will be the country harmed the most by this trade war, as China's imports from US are lesser than  one-fourth the amount of goods US imports from China. Trump is underestimating China. Also, China is a manufacturing hub for the world's biggest American brands. If Trump strains relations with China, it will effect numerous American companies. If the trade war continues, China may devalue it's currency. This will make the prices of Chinese goods in American market back to normal, cancelling out the tax impact.

Charu Veluthoor
On 20th July 2018

This is a part of a letter I wrote to the Letters to the Editor section of "The Economist"

Women and Cooperatives

This Article talks about how a cooperative changed the life of rural women from India. A model which should be replicated in rural localities around the world .

"Bindu"- A Lady of Will and Determination

Living in world’s most diverse locations has given me a valuable insight into the lives of different people. Starting from my early childhood in well developed US to an interior village in India, I have had opportunities to view how contrasting the lives of people from both of these places were. On one side in the US, even not having a car is close to poverty whereas in my village in India, many people don’t even recognise the value of education and have poor access to health and sanitation. Our domestic helper Bindu was one such person. Struggling to meet ends meet ,this lady in her late 30’s was married at 18,and also a mother to a differently abled child. Her days were spent on taking her son to the government and charitable trust hospitals. Her son couldn’t attend school, as they couldn’t afford to take him to the special school far away. But Bindu, never left hope. Her beautiful smile and her never fading optimism stayed. And as the proverb “God helps those who help themselves”, she was recently helped by a few political party workers, who helped her get in touch with other such women and together they have formed a cooperative. Now this group of rural women have started doing a variety of jobs from making handicrafts to digging wells. I wouldn’t say they are now well off, but a change has been initiated. Today Bindu’s son goes to special school run by University students in our village. Today, she is the president of the co-operatives workers, and has also built a house with electricity and a toilet with the help of government aid. I would say her financial stability has drastically increased over the past one year.  But, Bindu is just one among millions. 

I studied high school in one of India’s metropolitan cities and was quite impressed at the visible development when I first arrived, especially after living for 7years in a village. But this was far from the truth, and the same is true for most metropolitan cities in developing countries. Everytime I passed by an impressive luxurious apartment, I could find a small dusty slum with hundreds of people crammed into a small area. In such cities, the rich keep growing richer and the poor keep growing poorer. The separation between these sections of the society are so wide. These pathetic surroundings were worse off than my village. These people have no basic amenities for survival. They eat out the garbage dumps, drink water from roadside taps, sleep on the same pavement which later becomes their toilet.The government should initiate a similiar change among these people.