Tune in to watch Karan Singh, Managing Director, ACG, talk about reversing the malnutrition trends by taking strong healthcare measures and leveraging technology and innovation in nutraceuticals.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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00:11 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:38 Certainly, more than a year and a half of the global pandemic
00:42 has changed many of our behaviors and beliefs,
00:45 including those related to health and wellness.
00:48 It has impacted our minds and our bodies and routines,
00:51 our families and communities.
00:55 Most of us have had to quickly shift
00:57 to a healthy at-home attitude for our physical as well
01:01 as mental well-being.
01:03 People are switching to healthier diets
01:06 and, when possible, a more active schedule
01:08 to remain fit in extended periods of lockdown
01:11 and stay alert against the virus.
01:14 We can witness a mindset change where
01:16 families are planning better meals
01:18 and are consciously making decisions that keep health
01:21 front and center.
01:23 People at large have started to pay more attention
01:25 to what and when they eat.
01:28 A vast group of consumers have started to go out of their way
01:30 and pay more attention to the products
01:33 and pay for products that they deem worthy.
01:36 They pay attention to quality, purity, stewardship,
01:40 informing methods, responsible sourcing, et cetera.
01:42 We're seeing a whole host of change and shift
01:44 in consumer behaviors and consumer choices,
01:47 especially now that a majority of people are working from home
01:52 and are preparing their own meals.
01:54 They're actually paying very close attention
01:56 to what ingredients they use versus trying
01:57 to catch a quick meal in between timings at the office.
02:01 I also believe in many urban centers.
02:06 And just like myself, I've taken up home cooking as a passion
02:11 and do it quite diligently.
02:13 And I'm sure many others are doing the same as well.
02:16 We have become more sensible about what we consume
02:19 and how we feel after a heavy meal versus eating
02:23 at a restaurant and having that same sort of food
02:25 cooked at home.
02:27 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:32 In Ayurveda, a lot of the ingredients
02:33 are used in its raw form versus in nutraceuticals.
02:37 They're used more in a modern form, leveraging technology.
02:41 And that's one of the big, big, big differences that I see.
02:45 I don't see Ayurveda even as a lens of competition.
02:49 In fact, I do believe that the roots of modern-day
02:53 nutraceuticals can be found in Ayurveda
02:55 in many, many different ways.
02:57 Given the busy schedule, the busy schedule
02:59 of the lifestyle, the nutrients, given the busy schedules
03:02 and the lifestyles, nutraceuticals
03:05 are able to take care of the fundamentals of Ayurveda
03:07 and integrate them in modern delivery systems, which
03:10 are viable on a mass scale.
03:13 To give you an example, like Ayurveda,
03:16 nutraceuticals also is based on--
03:19 it's our ingredients-based solutions.
03:22 Given preferences of people, a lot of these ingredients
03:25 are also increasingly plant-based or vegan.
03:28 So there are trends in that direction.
03:30 Being among the most biodiverse countries in the world,
03:33 India in itself hosts 8,000 medicinal plants, which
03:37 are used for preparing herbal medicines
03:39 and is one of the largest suppliers of herbal extracts
03:42 and raw materials for the dietary supplement
03:45 market worldwide.
03:47 But with better understanding of various metabolical processes
03:51 and causes of modern-day diseases,
03:53 including NCDs and their convergence
03:57 in health and nutritional science,
04:00 it is now possible to develop new categories of products
04:03 beyond what was once called Ayurvedic--
04:06 Ayurveda, Ayurvedic--
04:07 Ayurvedic-- as I call it.
04:10 Backing these products with extensive clinical research
04:14 across various geographical groups is also a plus.
04:16 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:19 Nutraceuticals has changed my life.
04:26 And I do believe that it does form an integral part
04:30 of the community.
04:32 Food and nutrition have always been intertwined.
04:35 Just to go back a couple of decades
04:37 and reflect on the kind of food that our grandparents would
04:40 have in a day, it was full of carbs, proteins, and fats.
04:45 They were effectively balanced with micronutrients.
04:48 Before the pandemic, the government
04:50 reported that Indians have an excess consumption of cereals,
04:53 but not enough proteins, fruits, and vegetables in their diets.
04:57 The findings broadly applied across all states and income
05:00 levels, underlining the challenges many Indians face
05:04 in obtaining healthy diets and a balanced nutrition.
05:08 As a result, feeling lazy, tired, and exhausted,
05:11 maybe burned out in some cases, is
05:13 caused by an unbalanced diet rather than lack of sleep.
05:18 Today, meals have become inconsistent.
05:21 And to fix this, we need supplements and nutraceuticals.
05:25 Nutraceuticals help people achieve a balanced life
05:27 and in so many ways, act as a preventive medicine.
05:32 To give you an example, the entire generation
05:34 of millennials is observed to be deficient in vitamin D.
05:39 You can well imagine the impact this deficiency amongst women,
05:45 especially during pregnancy.
05:47 But it triggers and increases risk
05:49 of depression and hypertension.
05:52 Starting supplements early on has a vast impact
05:55 on the quality of life.
05:57 And I've had the same experience myself.
06:00 I suffered from many different illnesses in my younger years.
06:03 And I started taking supplements.
06:05 And I can confidently say that today, all my parameters
06:09 are in check as a result of the supplements I take.
06:12 As individuals, we don't live balanced.
06:15 We don't eat balanced diets.
06:16 I mean, in our busy work schedules, when we're at office
06:20 and we take our breaks, we try and grab whatever
06:22 we can in that short time that's available to us.
06:26 And very often, whatever we do eat
06:28 is not balanced in terms of what your body requires.
06:32 So with age, bone health, and eyesight
06:36 also becomes sort of a regular problem.
06:39 So several nutritional supplements
06:40 have shown beneficial effects on aging and age-related diseases.
06:45 Based on available data, scientists across the world
06:48 suggest that human life expectancy and quality
06:51 can be significantly increased in the 21st century
06:54 by optimizing diet and using nutritional supplements.
06:58 Keeping all these points in mind,
07:00 I can confidently say that they do become an integral part
07:04 of the community.
07:05 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:12 So I absolutely believe in food fortification.
07:18 And it's a smart way to inculcate
07:20 health in the society.
07:22 Fortified food is based on the concept
07:25 of getting more from less.
07:27 Quantity of food one needs for increasing the nutritional value
07:30 of what one is using.
07:33 Fortifying the daily staples in particular,
07:35 so food products that are consumed by the society daily
07:38 are the best ones to be fortified.
07:40 Let's say salt, rice, meat, oils, milk, for example.
07:45 In America and other Western countries,
07:47 these essential commodity foods have
07:50 been fortified for decades and generations now.
07:54 And they've seen the nutritional value
07:55 that it's had on the next and future generations as well.
08:00 In India, the use of double-fortified salt
08:02 has already proven to be a cost-effective and sustainable
08:05 means to reduce iodine and iron deficiency.
08:09 With the public distribution system,
08:11 DFS currently reaches 60 million consumers
08:15 in three Indian states itself, just in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya
08:18 Pradesh, and Jharkhand.
08:21 In the United States, all their cereal-based products,
08:25 like I said, milk, dairy, fats, oils, accessory food items,
08:29 tea, and other beverages, and even infant formulas
08:32 are all fortified.
08:35 It has proven to be a viable solution
08:37 for balancing rapid food insecurity and nutrition.
08:41 For the food fortification program
08:43 to have maximum penetration and for it
08:45 to reach the grassroots level of society,
08:48 government intervention is obviously key.
08:51 Having regulations that may mandate food fortification
08:55 and creating awareness amongst the masses about fortification
08:59 and how it helps is important and goes
09:02 without saying the role of nutrition companies,
09:05 like Vantage Nutrition, who can contribute
09:07 by developing innovative fortification options covering
09:10 essential nutrients and micronutrients as well.
09:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]
09:17 [MUSIC PLAYING]
09:44 We're actually investing a lot in nutraceuticals research
09:48 and development.
09:49 And really, there are four main pillars
09:51 around a lot of our investments in R&D.
09:55 I'll just walk you through each one of them.
09:58 First is to be closer to nature and build products
10:03 based on nature.
10:04 So we're continuously working to develop products
10:08 that are closer, which are plant-based, which are clean,
10:10 which are minimal, which require minimal processing--
10:13 vegan, not genetically modified in any way,
10:17 and free from any animal origin.
10:19 So that's the first big area in which we're
10:24 focusing on developing new and new ingredients.
10:28 We're also looking at the absorption of these ingredients.
10:30 And that's the next area.
10:32 So we're looking at how can we choose those ingredients
10:37 and modify them in a way that they
10:40 lead to more effective absorption in the body, which
10:44 I believe is critical for efficacy.
10:47 The R&D team continuously strives
10:49 to develop products which perform better
10:53 than current products available in the market.
10:56 The next area we look at is modified release products,
10:59 so products that are fast-acting, slow-releasing,
11:03 or control a sustained action over a longer period.
11:06 At the end, your body requires vitamins through the day.
11:08 It requires supplements through the day.
11:11 But we, unfortunately, with our busy schedules,
11:15 we cannot keep popping pills or taking
11:17 capsules every few hours.
11:20 But if we can get something that actually releases itself
11:23 gradually through the course of the day
11:25 and provides your body exactly what it needs--
11:28 so that's an area which we've been focusing on a lot
11:32 to do with nutraceuticals.
11:33 Can we get the right release profile of the product
11:36 so it gets released in accordance
11:38 to what your body needs?
11:40 The last area is around personalization.
11:43 And we've seen a huge wave of people
11:46 wanting to select and choose their own cocktail
11:49 of supplements to what their body requires.
11:51 And each body is special and unique, and so are the needs.
11:56 One may require x amount of a certain nutrient,
11:59 while the other may require two times the same nutrient.
12:03 Thus, personalization of nutrient
12:05 to match the exact need of an individual is critical.
12:09 So one size fits all is no longer relevant.
12:12 And a lot of efforts are put into by the research
12:14 and development team to develop such customized
12:16 nutraceutical products.
12:18 The best part is today, technology
12:20 has evolved to an extent which it actually
12:23 enables us to be able to do this and personalize
12:26 a person's nutrition for their body needs.
12:29 [MUSIC PLAYING]
12:32 You know, ECG has obviously been very well entrenched
12:35 within the pharmaceutical industry in India.
12:37 And today, we're spread across 105 different countries
12:40 across the globe.
12:42 I think the global opportunity was sort of envisioned
12:46 in the late '90s.
12:48 And at that time, we had developed our core strengths
12:52 in capsules, films, and foils, packaging,
12:54 and inspection solutions.
12:56 Our strategy was first to go to market
12:58 and then to market and then to market.
13:00 Our strategy was first to go to markets overseas
13:03 and seed it through our business development efforts
13:06 and export from India.
13:08 However, as ECG got more foothold into these markets,
13:15 we identified global hotspots to cater to those regions locally.
13:20 And today, we have seven manufacturing sites
13:22 across the globe.
13:24 We made acquisitions in Europe to produce
13:28 capsules, which has become one of the largest capsule
13:30 manufacturing sites in the whole of--
13:34 I would say right from Western Europe up to Russia.
13:37 We also acquired a films and packaging facility
13:41 in Brazil, which is now the second largest
13:44 pharmaceutical films manufacturer in that region.
13:50 Both of these projects have sort of
13:52 have boosted our presence, geographical presence,
13:56 as well as our presence within the regions
13:58 and allow us to penetrate into those regions far greater.
14:02 We've spent close to about $150 million
14:04 in capital expenditure programs, just building up
14:08 greenfield capacity and continue to adding to the top line.
14:12 In fact, half our turnover comes from overseas,
14:15 and half our turnover comes out of India.
14:19 And the global manufacturing and sort of the global presence
14:22 is a continuous push as we see huge opportunity
14:26 in global markets for us to leverage our core capabilities.
14:30 [MUSIC PLAYING]
14:34 So there's no doubt that everyone
14:39 is experiencing impacts of COVID-19 differently
14:42 by industry, business community, individuals, families.
14:45 From my perspective, I'd describe the past several months
14:48 as absolutely humbling.
14:51 It's been a reminder of our roots as a company
14:54 and our values and the role that we
14:58 play within the pharmaceutical industry and society at large.
15:04 Right from, I think, the early days when COVID-19 hit,
15:10 we immediately sort of shifted gear
15:12 into sort of that problem-solving mindset
15:16 to make it better.
15:18 And COVID-19 was one more opportunity for us
15:20 as an organization to prove our sense of resilience
15:23 and persistence and continue to ensure that the pipelines
15:27 remained full and that pharmaceutical companies had
15:30 sufficient amount of supplies available to them
15:32 so that they could cater to the growing demand for medicines,
15:36 not only in India but across the world.
15:38 And the world was really depending on India
15:40 during the last 1 and 1/2 years to be
15:42 able to supply them essential medicines to combat this virus.
15:46 So since the beginning, we started talking about--
15:49 right from the beginning of COVID-19,
15:51 we started talking about necessary steps
15:53 to ensure safety of our employees, clients,
15:55 and our facilities.
15:59 Given a strong backbone of IT infrastructure,
16:02 our teams, we transitioned to seamlessly working
16:04 from home probably a week before even lockdown got announced.
16:07 We anticipated that a lockdown was coming, just like it
16:09 had in many other countries.
16:11 And so we said-- we, in fact, spoke to associates
16:15 and requested everyone to shift to home
16:18 a week in advance of the official announcement coming
16:20 so that people could get all the IT support, help
16:24 that they needed prior to lockdown coming in,
16:26 get settled in at home.
16:28 And then when lockdown hit, things would become seamless.
16:30 Rather than trying to run around those initial days
16:33 during lockdown, which was really, really difficult.
16:36 From our manufacturing sites, as in essential industries,
16:39 we revised all our SOPs and guidelines for operations.
16:43 Additional safety officers, COVID-19 marshals,
16:46 were deployed.
16:47 I personally closely audited the impact
16:49 alongside my leadership team.
16:51 So we would have a daily meeting every morning
16:54 where we would discuss safety issues.
16:56 We'd discuss how do we ensure that people come to work safely
17:00 while they're at work?
17:01 How do we ensure that they're not infecting each other
17:04 when they're using the canteens or the change rooms, which
17:07 are areas where people would gather?
17:08 How do we ensure that they're socially distanced?
17:11 Or even lining up at the gate before they
17:14 enter into the facility.
17:15 And what are the necessary steps and measures and precautions
17:18 that we need to put in right when people
17:20 are entering the factory?
17:23 We also prioritized mental health and well-being
17:25 of our associates.
17:26 We set up a COVID-19 help desk.
17:28 We equipped it with best-in-class doctors,
17:31 counselors, and resources to help associates
17:32 and their families to tide over.
17:35 Ahead of most of our peers, we extended MediClaim
17:38 to cover COVID-cared home and hospitals.
17:41 We amped up the term life cover.
17:43 And as vaccinations opened up, we
17:45 organized inoculations for all our associates.
17:47 So we've already completed the full round
17:49 where I believe 95% or 98% of ACGNs
17:54 already have their first vaccination.
17:56 And certainly, we'll be doing the second round of vaccines
17:58 as well to ensure that everyone gets the double dose.
18:02 We extended this also to their families and friends
18:05 and anyone else that they feel was in need of the vaccination
18:08 and was unable to get it.
18:10 As a collaborative and caring and progressive corporate,
18:13 we rolled out a COVID-19 response in March 2020
18:17 through our CSR arm, which is the ACG Cares Foundation.
18:22 In fact, the first surge, we worked with 40 villages
18:25 and 12 slum pockets near our facilities
18:28 and supported rural health care centers
18:30 with COVID care equipment.
18:33 The objective was to safeguard frontline health workers,
18:36 sanitation workers, and police.
18:38 We enabled personal protection equipment,
18:41 provided hygiene kits to 15,000 families,
18:44 grocery kits to 3,000 families, and cooked meals to 15,000 migrants.
18:48 So just trying to do our little bit wherever we could
18:51 as far as the local community and villages go.
18:56 Through our NGO programs, we could also work
18:59 towards providing psychological support in the community,
19:03 linking needy families with government ration distribution systems,
19:05 handling cases of violence against women,
19:08 continuing therapies for children with special needs,
19:11 sustaining livelihood, and supporting farmers.
19:13 So the CSR team really went out and did their very best.
19:18 And it's not only the CSR team.
19:20 I believe all ACG associates in some shape or form
19:23 and their families participated in a lot of the CSR work
19:26 that we were doing around local communities
19:29 and villages around our facilities.
19:32 During the second surge, we additionally focused on ramping up
19:34 the public health infrastructure, like centralized oxygen systems,
19:38 bringing in oxygen concentrators, creating emergency COVID vans,
19:42 and equipping public health care systems,
19:44 the PHCS and gram panchayats, et cetera.
19:47 So there was a significant amount of push from the organization
19:52 to try and not only look after the safety and health
19:56 of our own associates and their families,
19:58 but also neighboring communities and general public at large.
20:03 So I was never an early riser,
20:11 but now I am.
20:12 So I wake up at 5.30 a.m. every day.
20:17 I start my day with a glass of coconut water and my supplements
20:22 to avoid, and then I generally avoid much anything else to lunchtime.
20:27 Lunch will always be kept light to acquire the energy required in the day.
20:32 Something that won't make me sleepy in the afternoon,
20:34 ideally, like a cup of soup or a salad.
20:37 5.30 in the evening, I get ready and pack up for the gym.
20:41 I spend about two and a half hours on health and fitness every day.
20:45 That's the advantage of working from home.
20:48 Drink a lot of water throughout the day,
20:50 and then 7.00, 7.30, get ready for the evening.
20:53 Dinner again is usually light.
20:55 I've started curating my own meals, so I choose my ingredients.
20:58 I decide my recipes.
21:00 I research them in advance and then actually spend some time
21:04 in the kitchen with the cook and just guide him through the cooking.
21:09 I myself ensure that the food is tasty and maintains a balance of all nutrients.
21:15 So basketball for me, obviously, you mentioned it, so it is a stress buster,
21:20 but due to the COVID restrictions, I've been missing out on my weekend sort of routine.
21:26 So that is one of the activities that I daily miss.
21:29 But I've been blessed to have a little gym or a room with a gym at home,
21:35 and that's just been used extensively over the last one and a half years.
21:39 (Music)