 Look at this news article from 7th February 2024 of Business Standard newspaper. This article talks about the FMCG industry. Here FMCG is nothing but the fast moving consumer goods as the name itself indicates FMCG are products that sell faster. They are generally sold at lower price than slower moving goods. This is because these goods include food, drinks, toothpaste, household cleaning products and other items that expire or should be consumed in less than 3 years. Now coming back to the news article as per the recent research by Nielsen IQ or the NIQ the FMCG industry has grown 6.4% in volume in the 4th quarter of 2023. Especially there is an uptick in conception of food and essential home products. So in this backdrop let us understand the scope and significance of the food processing industry in India from the mains perspective using our mains answer writing approach. See food processing is an important topic for UPSA mains in which you can expect questions one or the other year. For example in 2019 this question was asked and in 2020 this question was asked. Now look at this question. This question was asked in the year 2022. Here you can see how frequently questions are arising from the particular topic. Now the 2022 mains question is the question for the day. Now we are going to decode this question. Elaborate the scope and significance of the food processing industry in India. See as you all know this question can be asked in GS paper 3 under the syllabus food processing and related industry in India, scope and significance, location, upstream and downstream requirements, supply chain management. So here in this question the only keyword is elaborate. Elaborate means giving detailed explanation. So in that introduction part you can mention about what is food processing and its importance. Here in the main body of the answer you can first write about the scope of the food processing industry in India and then you can write about the significance of the food processing industry in India. So this is how we are going to approach this particular question. Now let us move on to the introduction part. Here you can write that food processing is the process of transforming agricultural products or fresh food into one or the other form of food products. Some of the examples of food processing include canning, freezing, pasteurization, dehydration, fermentation, baking and cooking, high pressure processing, aseptic, packing, pulsed electric field processing and microwave assisted thermal sterilization. See food processing is mainly done to add value to raw agricultural products and to preserve perishable foods for extended periods involving various safety measures. Apart from this it allows for creating a wide range of food products by combining and modifying ingredients. This will cut a diverse consumer preference and taste. By utilizing surplus or imperfect produce food processing also helps in reducing food wastage. This contributes to sustainable agricultural practices and resource conservation. Food processing industry is a sunrise sector in India and it accounts for 18.3% of GVA in agriculture and allied sectors. So in this way you can write an introduction about the food processing industry. You might think the introduction part is a little bit lengthier but once you get a clarity about the concept you can shrink the introduction and write it in your answer. So moving on let us see how to answer the first part of the question. Here you have to list the scope of the food processing sector in India. See firstly you can write about the abundance of agricultural resources. See India boasts abundant agricultural resources with a diverse range of crops and fruits grown throughout the country. This abundance provides a steady supply of raw materials for the food processing industry thereby fostering the growth of the industry. Secondly, raising demand for processed food. See the changing lifestyles and preferences of the Indian population have increased demand for convenient and ready to eat food products. This has driven the food processing industry's growth, cartooning to consumers changing dietary habits. Thirdly, favourable government initiatives. See the Indian government has been actively promoting the food processing industry through various schemes and policies like production linked incentive scheme for food processing industry in short call as PLI SFBI then the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinshai Yojana PMKSY then the Pradhan Mantri formulation of micro food processing enterprises PMFME. All these schemes offer financial incentives and subsidies to encourage investment in the sector. Apart from this 100% FDI is permitted under the automatic route in food processing industry in India and 100% FDI is also allowed through the government approval route for trading including through e-commerce in respect of food products manufactured or produced in India. So if a foreign e-commerce company have a desire to trade food products manufactured or produced in India they have 100% chances to prosper in the Indian economy. Government has made this facility in order to ease business doing. Apart from this government is also planning to make India the global hub for Sri Anna or the Billets allowing 100% FDI will allow the alternative healthy food products as well. Fourthly, growing food export potential. See as reported by APEDA India's export of processed food where 59,580 crore rupees in 2022-23. This showcases that India's food processing industry has witnessed a surge in exports as the countries processed food products gain popularity in international markets. This trend further boosts the growth and potential of the industry. Fifthly rapid technological advancements in food processing. See this has enabled the food processing industry to adapt modern and efficient methods leading to improved production processes and higher quality products. For example AI powered vision systems. They can inspect and ensure the quality of food products at a pace and accuracy that human cannot match. Then integrating AI in the food processing industry can ensure supply chain efficiency, provide personalized nutrition, ensure food safety by detecting anomalies or contamination in food products and help in predictive management and provide innovative recipes. Finally employment generation. See the food processing industry is a significant source of employment as it provides opportunity to millions of people especially in rural areas. Nearly 12.22% share of total employment is provided by the food processing industry. This contributes to economic development and poverty reduction. So you can write these points in the first part of the answer. Moving on to the second part of the answer. Here you have to write about the significance of food processing industry. For example you can write that firstly doubling of farmers income see with a rise in demand for agri-based products there will be commensurate rise in the price paid to the farmer. Apart from this it establishes forward and backward linkages that are required in the agri sector thereby ensuring the consistency in the flow of income to the farmers. Secondly processed foods when fortified with vitamins and minerals can reduce the nutritional gap in the population thereby it can address nutritional insecurity in the country as well. Thirdly it boosts trade and earns foreign exchange. See it is an important source of foreign exchange. For example Indian basmati rice is in great demand in Middle Eastern countries. In financial year 2022-23 India exported 17.8 million tons of non basmati rice and 4.6 million tons of basmati rice. Fourthly curbing migration see food processing being a labour intensive industry will provide localized employment opportunities and thus it will reduce the push factor in source regions of migration. So in simple words it will promote inclusive growth through secondary agriculture in the rural area and generate jobs as well. Apart from this processing increases the shelf life of the food and thus keeping supplies in tune with the demand thereby controlling food inflation. For example frozen safal peas are available throughout the year and then fruit leathers created by dehydration of apples, berries and dates if frozen they can last up to one year. Since these products are available throughout the year we don't need to be worried about food inflation. Finally food processing will require different types of inputs so thus creating an incentive for the farmer to grow and diversify crops. So you can write these points in the second part of the answer. Now in between if you get some space in the side you can add this diagram which tells about the challenges for food processing sector. So this way you can give the holistic cover in that topic. Now finally in the conclusion part you can write that despite its many benefits the level of processing of agricultural produce is less than 10% and more than 75% of the industry is in the unorganized sector. It also faces a number of challenges. To overcome these challenges and further develop the industry the government has implemented a number of initiatives. So we should go a long way to achieve the sector's true potential. So this way you can complete the answer for this particular question. So in this news article discussion we saw in detail about the scope and significance of the food processing industry in India.