It is a research centre, under the Indian Council of Medical Research.Institute’s activities are broad-based, encompassing the whole area of food and nutrition.he Institute has been recognized by many national and international agencies as Centre for conducting advanced as well as ad-hoc training courses in nutrition and laboratory animal sciences. In addition, several reputed universities have recognized NIN as a Centre for Ph.D programmes in different disciplines.

The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment (POSHAN Abhiyaan), or the National Nutrition Mission, is the Government of India’s flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. It directs the attention of the country towards the problem of malnutrition and addresses it in a mission-mode.

The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide.The name of the scheme has been changed to PM-POSHAN (PRANDHAN MANTRI POSHAN SHAKTI NIRMAN) Scheme, in September 2021.

In August, 1992 the National Goitre Control Programme (NGCP) was renamed as National Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control Programme (NIDDCP) with a view of wide spectrum of Iodine Deficiency Disorders like mental and physical retardation, deaf mutisim, cretinism, still births, abortions etc..

The National Nutritional Anaemia Prophylaxis Programme initiated in 1970, was revised and expanded to include beneficiaries from all age groups namely children aged 6-59 months, 5-10 yr, adolescents aged 10-19 yr, pregnant and lactating women and women in reproductive age group under the National Iron Plus Initiative (NIPI) programme in 2011.

National Prophylaxis Programme Against Nutritional Blindness was initiated as a centrally sponsored scheme. Under this scheme, all children between ages of one and three years were to be administered 200,000 IU of Vitamin A orally once in six months. In the 2006, the age group of eligible children was broadened to include children between 6 months and 5 years after reconsidering recommendations of the WHO, UNICEF and Ministry of Women

Kishori Shakti Yojana (KSY) seeks to empower adolescent girls, so as to enable them to take charge of their lives. It is viewed as a holistic initiative for the development of adolescent girls. The programme through its interventions aims at bringing about a difference in the lives of the adolescent girls. It seeks to provide them with an opportunity to realize their full potential.

The National Nutrition Policy, formulated by the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of India (GOI) was approved by the Cabinet in April 1993. The policy advocates a "comprehensive, integrated and inter-sectoral strategy for alleviating the multifaceted problem of malnutrition and achieving the optimal state of nutrition for the people ".

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme is one of the flagship programmes of the Government of India and represents one of the world’s largest and unique programmes for early childhood care and development. It acts as a response to the challenge of providing pre-school non-formal education on one hand and breaking the vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning capacity and mortality on the other.