Under the Convenorship of Mr. Gokul Patnaik, Former Chairman APEDA, and Chairman Global AgriSystems Pvt.Ltd. an organizing committee has been formed by the Chief Coordinator Mr S Jafar Naqvi, and the senior Government officials, executives and stalwarts of fresh produce industry has been invited from organizations like Agri Ministry, APEDA, NHB, NAFED, FIFI, Adani Agri Fresh, Mahindra Agri, ITC Group, Sahyadri Farms, Reliance Fresh, Blinkit, Desai AgriFoods etc.

It is estimated that waterborne diseases have an economic burden of approximately USD 600 million a year in India. This is especially true for drought- and flood-prone areas, which affected a third of India’s population in the past couple of years. While the lentils are cooking, mix the ginger, garlic, chillies and dry spices together with the yoghurt, lemon juice and chopped coriander and season well. Whizz with a hand blender or in a food processor if you have one, then toss with the vegetables. Leave to marinate. Mix together the melted butter, milk and saffron.With this ambitious announcement, while sanitation remains a priority for the national development agenda, the focus on the provision of safe and secure piped water supply is on an exponential rise. UNICEF has been the ‘development partner of choice’ for the Government of India and has played a key role in the revamping and implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission, fully aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) criteria for safely managed water supply, with every rural household served with portable water supply, in adequate quantity and of prescribed quality, on a regular and long-term basis. Add the fenugreek leaves, cinnamon, cloves, chilli powder, honey and salt. Stir, then add the fried paneer, cover with a lid and cook for 5 minutes, or until cooked through. Add the peas and cream and cook for a further 5 minutes. Sodha wanted to shine a light not only on Gujarati food, but on the rich variety of Indian cooking, so at odds with the brown, indistinct rogan joshes, kormas and baltis of some high-street curry houses. “Brits have this fierce love of Indian food and I think those restaurants took that love for granted,” she says. Increasing interest in food in the UK means people travelling to India are emboldened to discover the diversity of the cuisine, and she thinks British people are also excited to use local produce in new ways. When writing recipes for Fresh India, Sodha would consider whether to use the vegetable in a twist on a traditional recipe – her matar paneer dish uses two types of peas – or to use Indian spices to create something new. “The salad section is entirely new because India doesn’t really do salads.”

Meera Sodha has made turmeric lattes and a type of mithai (Indian sweet). Rather apologetically, she notes that while things may seem to have gone a bit hipster cafe when we meet in her east London kitchen, both are old Indian recipes. She’d grown up drinking “golden milk” as a cure-all (though health claims on its behalf remain unproven, she hastens to add), and had been busy developing her own spice blend including turmeric, cinnamon and pepper. The sweets are khajur pak – traditionally made by heating dates and nuts, likely cashews, in a pan on the stove, but she blitzed them in a food processor before rolling them into balls and dusting with pistachio and cocoa. “And I added pecans because … well, who doesn’t love pecans?” This pursuit of flavour over tradition has contributed to the success of Fresh India, this year’s winner of Best New Cookbook. Grassroot-level support is being prioritized, and communities play a pivotal role in planning, implementation, operation and maintenance of their schemes. At the village level, the local government institutions, called gram panchayats, are empowered to play an important role, focusing on work commissioning, operation and maintenance through community contributions, water quality monitoring, and more broadly on source sustainability through water resource management – a critical area in the context of climate changes. Spicewise, biryani tends to be a fairly delicate dish: sweet garam masala is common, along with a little turmeric for colour, cumin and a bit of chilli powder. Fearnley-Whittinstall adds ground coriander and cinnamon, but I’m going to keep it fairly simple. However, I do like the saffron used in both his and the Dishoom recipe, which makes the dish feel gratifyingly regal, as well as taste wonderful. Dishoom infuses butter and cream with it and then pours it over the top of the rice before cooking, which adds an extra touch of decadence, although I think in a non-restaurant context, milk will do the same job just fine. Kaushy Patel deep-fries all her vegetables. Photograph: Felicity Cloake for The Guardian Baking and serving Sodha is a former vegetarian, and more than half the 60-million population who live in Gujarat eat a meat-free diet. “As a result, this incredible cuisine evolved that was very innovative.” Agricultural Lincolnshire was also an inspiration: “It’s like a giant larder.”The smell of roasted pumpkin, and curry leaves sizzling in coconut oil, is enough to make anyone want to go to Kerala, which is where a variation of this dish, known as “olan”, originates.