Innovation Club Activity - Healthy Way of Living Millet for wellness on 23 06 23
Channel: IGNOU Regional Centre Cochin
Date: 2023-06-27

As per Wikipedia, the Food and Agriculture Organization and United Nations has recognised 2023 as International Year of Millets or IYM2023 for awareness about health and nutritional benefits of millets. The Indian Government proposed to celebrate 2023 as International Year of Millets. Millets are a group of cereal grains that belong to the Poaceae family, commonly known as the grass family (https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/what-is-millet#_noHeaderPrefixedContent). The millets can be an alternative to imported cereals. Millets also have high nutritional values (https://www.mygov.in/). 

The theme for the International Year of Millets 2023 (IYM) is “Harnessing the untapped potential of millets for food security, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture” 

The lecture on the eve of International Year of Millet was coupled with the Innovation Club- monthly lecture identified as ‘Open Session cum Enrichment Session’ at Regional Centre Cochin and held on 23.06.2023 at 4 PM. 

The Resource Person for the lecture was Dr. D.D. Nambudiri. 

 Dr. D.D. Nambudiri took M.Sc. (Food Tech.)  from UN/FAO International Food  Technology Training Centre, Mysore University and Ph.D.(Biochemistry ) from the  Cochin University of Science &  Technology, Cochin, India.  Dr. D.D. Nambudiri began his professional career at CFTRI, Mysore. 

Since, 1976, Dr. D.D. Nambudiri served at the newly formed Department of Industrial Fisheries, CUSAT, Kochi. It is pertinent to mention that School of Industrial Fisheries was established in 1976 as the Department of Industrial Fisheries under the erstwhile University of Cochin for postgraduate teaching and research on all aspects of fisheries science and technology. The department was elevated to the status of the School under CUSAT since 1995 by recognizing the multidisciplinary nature of the programme (M.Sc. Degree in Industrial Fisheries) and progress achieved in teaching, research and outreach activities in various facets of fisheries. The school started offering an innovative professional degree programme viz., Master of Fisheries Science (M.F.Sc.) in Seafood Safety and Trade since 2012 (https://cusat.ac.in/if.php).

 Dr. D.D. Nambudiri had worked as Dean of Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), Kochi and  having  total service ( in  Teaching & Research in Food Science &  Technology) for 38 yrs. Dr. D.D. Nambudiri worked as  Visiting faculty at the European Union  Erasmus Mundus  MSc (Food Science & Nutrition) at  Ireland & Belgium. He also worked as Associate Dean of the College of Marine Science and Technology, (Deemed University ) in Eritrea, NE Africa. Dr. D.D. Nambudiri has published several research papers and few books including ‘Advances in Harvest and Post Harvest Technology of Fish’  published by NIPA, New Delhi. He has taken one Patent namely ‘ Depuration System for bivalves’( Indian Patent No;188 109 ) .

 Dr. D.D. Nambudiri has functioned  in  capacities such as Vice President Society of Fisheries Technologists  (India); Member, Academic Council, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin and Kerala Agricultural University,Thrissur; Member, Research Council, Karnataka University of Veterinary, Animal Sciences and Fisheries, Bidar; Management Council of the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin and Research Advisory Committee, Central Agricultural Research Institute,(ICAR), Port Blair, Andaman  Nicobar.

 Dr. D.D. Nambudiri had presented research papers in various conferences abroad  and chaired a session on Risk Assessment and Analysis in the Symposium on Food Safety held at Yokohama Japan in 2008. Dr. D.D. Nambudiri worked as Expert, Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, New Delhi   and the Kerala Public service Commission.

Dr. A.K. Prema, Coordinator, IGNOU Study Centre 14000 facilitated in identifying of the expert for the Lecture on the eve of International Year of Millet was coupled with the Innovation Club- monthly lecture identified as ‘Open Session cum Enrichment Session’ at Regional Centre Cochin and held on 23.06.2023 at 4 PM.

The Innovation Club at Regional Centre, Cochin was initiated under the encouragement of the NCIDE, IGNOU. A series of monthly lecture identified as ‘Open Session cum Enrichment Session’ are being held regularly at the Regional Centre, Cochin since September, 2018. As an innovative practice the monthly lecture identified as Enrichment session under Innovation club is coupled with Grievance Redressal session as it would enable the learners to take home some message besides resolving their grievances. 

Dr. Praseetha Unnikrishnan, Assistant Director, IGNOU Regional Centre, Cochin is the Nodal Officer for the Innovation Club Activities held at Regional Centre Cochin. Sh. K.J. Joseph, Section Officer, Regional Centre Cochin proposed the vote of thanks.