Hyderabad, Oct 26 : National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) Director Dr R Hemalatha has said that it always been at the forefront of need-based, pragmatic research and has been of great practical value in the nation’s fight against malnutrition.

Interacting with a group of Officer Trainees of the Indian Information Service (IIS) of the 2020 batch at NIN here on Tuesday, she said that being the oldest in the fraternity of institutes under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) , National Institute of Nutrition (NIN ) Hyderabad is contributing in the wide areas through its research activities in the areas of nutrition, food safety, public health and policy.

The NIN Director elaborated the kind of programmes and activities carried by the institute, thereby contributing to the nutrient requirements for various National Nutrition programmes such as Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and mid-day meal programme.

As part of the session, ICMR-NIN Scientist, Dr G M Subba Rao interacted with the officer trainers and cleared their doubts on various aspects related to Health and Nutrition related communication.

Calling media as a powerful tool, Dr Rao reiterated the importance of health communication at grass root level and advised the officers to be good communicators and quell the misinformation circulated in social media especially in this Covid-19 times.

He further said many scientific, semi-scientific and popular publications which are results of NIN Research have been made available to the public for disseminating.

Senior Scientists Dr Avula Laxmaiah, Dr M Maheshwar briefed the officers about the various studies and Nutritional surveys conducted by NIN.

Dr P Manas Krishna Kanth, Deputy Director PIB, Varganti Gayathri, Media communication officer PIB, Officer Trainees Ashish Goyal, S Sai Vempati, Balanagendran D Anurag Kumar K took part in the session.(UNI)