Mysuru is home to two institutions devoted to research aimed at finding solutions to both food-related problems and those that may crop up in days ahead. Both institutions have an impressive track record of successful application of their inventions by various target beneficiaries, particularly food processing industry across the country and also a few other countries of Asia and Africa. However, as the problems of future years tend to assume complex dimensions, hurting the nation totally and its Diaspora with well-marked diverse economic and ethnic identities, the personnel of the two institutions will have to avoid dwelling on their past laurels. They have endured, during the past few decades, adverse views expressed in public domain, often harsh, likening one of the two establishments to a white elephant, a remark shared by virtually all research institutions of the country working with public funds. A highly rated executive of an industry leading in the fast-moving-consumer-goods sector, known for his grasp of nuances of pursuing research in many fields, while heading the Research Advisory Council of the Mysuru-based Central Food Technological Research Institute (founded in 1950) had opined that food is a tough area for research, the import/impact of which view may be beyond the comprehension of lay people.
Problems involving food faced by the fraternity raising the raw materials, enterprises that facilitate consumption of food and the consuming masses are different kettles of fish, all of them requiring multidisciplinary teams to formulate research projects, pursue their work in the laboratories to expedite the project, cross the bar of clearance by expert bodies before convincing the outcome of their research, all in a time frame.
