Department of Nutrition and Dietetics and Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research&Studiesorganized a 2 Day – Virtual International Conference on Role of Micronutrients: Immunity and Health.

The conference is being organizedto focus on the importance of micronutrients and its role in health and disease.

According to the World Health Organization, “these substances are the magic wands that enable the body to produce enzymes, hormones and other substances essential for proper growth and development.”

The objective of the conference is to update with latest research and development in the area of role of micronutrients in various physiological age groups, disease conditions etc.

The conference commenced with the welcome address by Dr. GL Khanna,PVC,MRIIRS followed by inspirational message by Dr. Sanjay Shrivastava, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor MRIIRS.Dr. Srivastava said, “Micronutrients play a vital role especially after the global pandemic and now its high time to focus on them to maintain the health and fight with the complications of the disease.”

The gracious presence of Chief Guest, Dr.R Hemalatha, Director, National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research, Hyderabad India rekindled the fervor of the event.  In the inaugural address, she emphasized on how micronutrients like calcium, iron play extremely essential role in balancing body functions. The role of calcium and iron balance is very crucial and further research is of utmost importance. The inaugural address was followed by the release of conference proceedings.  All the international & national renowned speakers lent support to this historical virtual conference.

The conference started with talk of key note speaker Dr G. S. Toteja, Former Additional Director General, ICMR, Delhi, India. He talked about Food fortification focusing on micronutrient fortification.

The next speaker of the session was Prof. Klaus Peter Herm, from Germany whose focus was on Macronutrients and micronutrients -the problems during growth and development in children inclined towards sports.

Dr Somnath Singh, Head, Department of Nutrition & Biochemistry, Defence Institute of Physiology & Allied Sciences, DRDO , Delhi, India apprised the participants by putting light on micronutrients requirements for people residing in extreme environments like cold, hot, high altitude, space etc.

Dr Monika Jain, from Department of Food Science & Nutrition, Banasthali Vidyapith, Tonk, Rajasthan, India gave a talk on strengthening the Geriatric health through micronutrients supplementation.

Dr Umesh Kapil, from Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Institute of Liver & Biliary Sciences, New Delhi, India gave an informative talk on Is iron deficiency the cause of anemia in India? He discussed various scientific evidence regarding iron deficiency as a major public health problem.

Dr Rakesh Tomar, from Physical Education Department of King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals Dhahran,Saudi Arabia emphasized on Micronutrients and Athletic Performance.

The final session of the day was the presentations of scientific papers. In both the senior and junior categories, 65 researchers gave poster presentations on scientific issues chosen by the scientific committee.

Along with that there were 12 oral presentations on scientific issues chosen by the scientific committee.