With the company selection process now complete, ATNI is kicking off its research for the third India Index. This time we are doing it differently, with more engagement and more impact. In this news item you will find the names of the companies that will be assessed and how ATNI will increase its impact on nutrition in India.

Together with our new Executive Director, Greg S Garrett, The Access to Nutrition Initiative has sharpened its Mission and has a new approved five-year (2023-2027) strategy.

The new target is to go beyond changing company behavior directly. ATNI embraces the need for systems change and will go full speed ahead in improving market performance by driving all key actors in the food system to accelerate access to affordable nutritious foods for all, especially vulnerable populations.

ATNI continues to do this by developing and delivering data-driven tools (Indexes) and nutrition knowledge that influence, guide and measure company accountability on nutrition targets. What’s new is that ATNI will intensify collaborating with the most relevant changemakers in markets – i.e. shareholders of food companies (institutional investors) and stakeholders that influence policies and the impact of food on the health of consumers.

Fresh off the press, our 2.0 Approach to keep the Food Industry accountable and increase our impact on nutrition will be applied to the next India Index 2023.

In 2023, ATNI will deliver:

• A new India Index that will measure and transform a growing part of the Indian food market by adding to knowledge and data on policies and commitments, and also performance metrics including the healthiness of food products and data on micro-nutrients in food products;
• Strong alliances and partnerships with relevant Indian partners, and closer collaboration with influential stakeholders impacting the food industry;
• Increased influence: by rolling out activities that influence food markets, such as targeted policy briefs, ATNI will increase its influence on transforming markets to deliver better nutrition for all.

See our previous India Index 2020

Specifically, ATNI will reach out to a larger number of companies than in earlier India Indexes and it will cover a larger range of products. ATNI will assess 20 companies, of which 14 are publicly listed (see Box 1). The companies were selected based on Euromonitor 2021 sales data and cover the most commonly purchased products by Indian consumers, including nutritious staple foods, dairy products, edible oil, cooking ingredients and snacks.

Adani Wilmar Ltd.
Agro Tech Foods Ltd.
Britannia Industries Ltd.
Coca-Cola India Ltd.
Dabur India Ltd.
Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(GCMMF) AMUL
Haldiram Foods International Pvt. Ltd.
Hatsun Agro Products Ltd.
Heritage Foods Ltd.
Hindustan Unilever Ltd.
ITC Ltd.
KMF Nandini (Karnataka Coorperative Milk Producers Federation Ltd. (KMF))
Lactalis India Pvt.
Marico Ltd.
Mondelez India Foods Pvt. Ltd.
Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetables Pvt. Ltd.
Nestle India Ltd.
Parle Products Pvt. Ltd.
Patanjali Ayurved Ltd./Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd.
PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd.

Furthermore, in this Index, we will seek closer collaboration and partnerships with influential Indian partners, in particular the Food Safety and Standards Association India (FSSAI), which is responsible for food regulation including labelling, and Consumer Voice India, which strengthens the rights of consumers to make informed choices.

For the first time, ATNI is currently undergoing a consultation process with institutional investors to understand how best we can work with investors to support market transformation in India. Over the past years, ATNI has built up an impressive global group of Investors in Nutrition and Health (81 investor signatories with just under $20 trillion Assets Under Management) that is driving change by engaging with food companies assessed in ATNI Indexes. ATNI’s Investor Support team will be facilitating this process.

The project will be driven by our research team, under the leadership of Mark Wijne (Research Director) and includes our experts, including on Responsible Marketing (Elena Schmider), Fortification (Bo-Jane Woods), and Policy Engagement (Will Sharp and Freddie Kaufmann). ATNI has simplified the research methodology by reducing the number of indicators and has put more emphasis on the performance of companies through the healthiness of their product sales. The research methodology will soon be published on our website.

This month our colleagues Annoek van den Wijngaart (Project Management lead) and Babs Ates (Research lead), together with ATNI’s representative in New Delhi, Senior Consultant Vivek Arora, will visit the companies that have not participated before in our India Indexes (Patanjali Foods, Haldiram Foods, Dabur India, Agro Tech Foods and Lactalis India) to explain the value and urgency of participating in the research.

Find out more about the team

The case for prioritizing nutrition is more than clear: in the latest Global Hunger Report, published by Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, India only ranked 107 out of 121 countries. At the same time India has not made substantial progress with regards to fighting anaemia among women of reproductive age (53%), or with achieving diet-related non-communicable disease (NCD) targets.  There is no good excuse for any of the food and beverage companies not to invest in nutrition.

We’re very much looking forward to working together with all our stakeholders this year and in the years to come on transforming the Indian market to improve the health of all the country’s consumers.

During the year, under the guidance of Philip Eisenhart and Omari Palmer in our Communications team, ATNI will report on the progress of our research, about Indian trends on nutrition and health, and news about our events which you can find here.

If you have any queries about the India Index 2023, please don’t hesitate to reach out to info@accesstonutrition.org.