Category A: Governance

• As Table 1 shows, there is clear evidence that most companies commit to placing a strategic focus on nutrition and health in India, articulated either through their mission statement, a strategic commitment to grow through health and nutrition, or both. This commitment had already been made at the time of ATNI’s 2016 Index by all the companies assessed at the time, except for Amul. It is encouraging to see that Amul has now also articulated this commitment, as well as many of the companies being assessed for the first time in 2020. In 2016, only Nestlé India, Hindustan Unilever and PepsiCo India articulated such a commitment through both a mission statement and a commitment to grow through health and nutrition and to be leaders in this area. This 2020 Index shows that ITC, Mother Dairy, Marico, and Britannia Industries have followed suit.

• While the majority of companies (14) state a commitment to deliver healthier foods in India, only seven make a specific reference to reaching groups experiencing or at high risk of malnutrition. Still, in comparison with the 2016 Index (where only Nestlé India and PepsiCo India demonstrated leadership in this area), this is a notable improvement.
• Further, only five companies recognize the nutrition and health priorities set out in the National Nutrition Strategy and Vision 2022 – Kuposhan Mukt Bharat and/or POSHAN Abhiyaan as part of India’s National Development Agenda in their nutrition strategy. Nestlé India is the only company comprehensively referring to the priorities set out by national authorities.

• Table 2 highlights important elements of companies’ performance with respect to integrating nutrition in their decision-making process. However, fewer companies succeed in translating the commitments shown in Table 1 into governance practices. For instance, only five companies conduct nutrition-related business risk assessments at least every 2 years.
• In addition, Table 2 shows that only five companies undertook a strategic review of commercial opportunities available to them by addressing the specific needs of groups that experience or are at high risk of malnutrition. However, none of the five conducted a comprehensive assessment that was then reviewed by their respective board.
• Only four companies were found to have undertaken market research or other types of studies to assess unmet needs of groups experiencing or at high risk of undernutrition and/or micronutrient deficiencies. Nestlé India and Hindustan Unilever are the only companies that have conducted such research for all states where they are present.

• In ATNI’s 2016 Index, five of the currently assessed companies (Mondelēz India, Nestlé India, PepsiCo India, Coca-Cola India, and Hindustan Unilever) recognized that they had a role to play in tackling India’s challenges of increasing levels of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. For the 2020 Index, ATNI has raised the bar: companies were asked about how they intended to tackle those issues, as described in their formal commercial strategies. Not all of the previously mentioned companies have met this new standard, although some newly assessed companies do (ITC, KMF Nandini, Marico). Furthermore, six of the 16 Index companies set out how they intend to address undernutrition and/or micronutrient deficiencies in their formal commercial strategies, as Table 2 shows.
• Finally, one way to evaluate whether companies deliver on the strategic commitments they make is to assess how healthy products contribute to the company’s financial performance. Nine of the 16 companies provided such information to ATNI (growth of the revenue of healthy products, either in absolute or relative terms). However, four lead the way by publicly disclosing this information – ITC, Marico, Hindustan Unilever and Amul.

To improve and accelerate efforts towards improving consumers’ nutrition, food and beverage manufacturers in India are encouraged to:

• Further integrate nutrition considerations in their core business functions. Companies taking this approach are likely to have a greater and more sustainable impact on improving Indian consumers’ access to nutritious foods, and on the population’s health, than those companies that attempt to address these issues as isolated from other corporate decisions. Thus, companies are encouraged to develop a formal nutrition policy or strategy that is part of their overall commercial strategy, including their objectives and activities related to nutrition (specific to India), and to publicly disclose the strategy.
• Further translate commitments into specific actions. Compared to the 2016 Index, the 2020 Index results show stronger and renewed commitments in this area. However, these commitments must now be translated into concrete and measurable governance practices.

• Determining business opportunities to address malnutrition requires a careful analysis of the population’s nutritional needs, as defined by public authorities – a complex process. Yet only a few companies have taken steps in this direction, by means of strategic reviews or market research. More opportunities would be discovered to tackle malnutrition if more companies were to do this.
• Demonstrate how they support the nutrition and health priorities set out in the National Nutrition Strategy and POSHAN Abhiyaan through their commercial operations.
• Promote healthy products further. All companies should already have clear plans and targets in place to increase sales of their healthy products. Companies are also encouraged to publicly report on progress towards these targets.

• The level at which companies assign ultimate accountability for implementing their nutrition strategies is indicative of the priority assigned to achieving results. As Table 3 shows, Britannia Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Mondelēz India and Nestlé India are the only four companies that assign such responsibility to a CEO or an executive that reports directly to the board. Britannia Industries and Hindustan Unilever lead in this regard by publicly disclosing this information. Furthermore, Mondelēz India has improved since ATNI’s 2016 Index, when the company assigned this responsibility to a committee that reported to the board.

• Another way to evaluate whether companies have effective management systems to deliver their commitments on nutrition is to assess whether the delivery of their nutrition plans or strategies is subject to an annual standard internal audit and/or an annual management review. Significantly, only Nestlé India and Hindustan Unilever report conducting both; the latter leads this area by publicly disclosing this information.
• All but three companies (for which no information was found) obtained recognized food safety certifications. Thirteen of the sixteen assessed companies obtained ISO 22000:2005 certification; and Coca-Cola India is the only company among these that has already moved on to ISO 22000:2018 certification.

• A new element of the 2020 Index is consideration of the actions taken by companies to prevent food loss and waste (FLW). Minimizing FLW makes a substantial contribution to increasing access to food but it is a topic that few companies seem to be addressing. However, six companies have incorporated FLW tracking and prevention tools into their management systems. Nestlé India leads in this area not only because of the number of measures in place but also because it published a commitment to reduce FLW in 2015. Nestlé India’s fresh milk district model in Moga for direct procurement is highlighted as best practice.

To improve and accelerate their efforts towards robust nutrition governance and management systems, food and beverage manufacturers in India are encouraged to:

• Ensure that accountability for implementing the nutrition strategy is clearly assigned to specific, relevant functions within the business with the capacity to drive the nutrition agenda.
• Ensure that nutrition plans and strategies are assessed regularly by internal audit and/or are subject to an annual management review to monitor progress. ATNI is concerned that only two companies have such measures in place.
• Food adequacy is intrinsically linked to sustainability. Food needs to be available and accessible at all times, in the present and for future generations; FLW threatens both current and future food accessibility.

• Six of the sixteen companies in the 2020 Index publish formal, annual reports that discuss their respective approaches to tackling nutrition issues in India. Such transparency is considered best practice. Nestlé India, Hindustan Unilever and Coca-Cola India all published annual reports at the time of the India Spotlight Index 2016 and continue to do so. Britannia Industries used to be the only India-headquartered company to publish an annual report in 2016. Currently, both Britannia Industries and Marico (new to the 2020 India Index) do so. Since the 2016 Index, PepsiCo India, which used to occasionally publish sustainability reports that addressed nutrition issues, now publishes them on an annual basis.
• All six companies encompass obesity and diet-related diseases in their reports, and five report on implementing strategies to address undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies through product fortification (an improvement since the 2016 Index). The remaining companies do not yet publicly disclose their efforts to address India’s nutrition challenges.

Reporting on tackling obesity and diet-related diseases in India

• In the 2016 Index, Hindustan Unilever was the only company of the ten assessed at that time, which reported comprehensively with respect to its work to prevent and address overweight and obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. Now, Nestlé India and PepsiCo India also provide more extensive explanations of their efforts to tackle these challenges in India, as Table 5 shows. However, no company publicly reports on its performance against all of their own objectives and targets for India. Britannia Industries, Coca-Cola India and Marico report to some degree, although their reporting is not as comprehensive as that of their peers.

Reporting on tackling undernutrition and/or micronutrient deficiencies in India

• Regarding undernutrition, the four companies that provided a limited commentary on their work to prevent and address undernutrition in India in 2016 – Britannia Industries, Coca-Cola India, Hindustan Unilever, Nestlé India – have all increased their level of disclosure. Their reporting is not limited simply to general statements on product fortification and consumers reached: most of them also provide an outlook on future plans for the Indian market, and challenges faced. Again, no company publicly reports on its current performance against all objectives and targets for India.
• Notably, PepsiCo India has also started to publish information on these issues specifically for the Indian market in a comprehensive manner which represents great improvement in the quality of its reporting. Britannia Industries is the only Indian-based company that publishes such annual reports.

Recommendations

To improve their transparency about how they are improving consumers’ access to nutrition, the 16 major food and beverage manufacturers in India assessed for this Index are encouraged to:

• Publicly and comprehensively report on their approach to tackling all forms of malnutrition issues in India on an annual basis, within the standard corporate reporting cycle.
• Report clearly on progress against commitments made and targets set.
• Set out a clear future plan for further improvement.