The Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia today called for integration of Defence Research and Development Organisation's, DRDO's Aahaar project with Mid-Day Meal and Integrated Child Development Scheme for enhancing child nutrition in the country. A DRDO project, Aahaar has developed high shelf life dal and roti packs to cater to the needs of the Aam Aadmi. It can be used during long journeys, nutritional feeding, catering programmes and other similar civilian applications.

Launching the project in New Delhi, Mr. Ahluwalia said, as women in rural areas get engaged in large numbers in farming activities. He said rural India is bound to generate local demand for these dal and roti packs with high shelf life. The Deputy Chairman said that the involvement of women self-help groups in the formation of small production units using DRDO food technologies would go a long way in enhancing livelihoods of the rural community.

AIR correspondent reports, initially this collaboration will focus on the food technologies developed by Defence Food Research Laboratory, DFRL formed under the aegis of DRDO. The aim of the project is to build women-oriented enterprises using food technologies of DFRL.