Harsha Vardhan Reddy has big plans for hemp in India, where he hopes to end childhood malnutrition with seeds from the cannabis plant.

Hemp seeds have already started to gain a foothold as a heath food in the US and now Reddy is hoping he can make the same thing in India. His company NewHempCo has recently sent a proposal to the local government to turn hemp seed into an affordable source of nutrition for underprivileged children.

"We plan to crush hemp seed into powder; 100 gram of powder has gram protein, 33-35 gram fiber, 21-gram amino acids among which nine are essential for healthy growth of children," Reddy told The New India Express. "It also contains good doses of sodium, iron, potassium, sodium and phosphorous, etc. It is feasible for the government to manufacture the food on a mass scale and distributed it among children suffering from malnutrition."

Reddy says his company is also in development of several other hemp fiber products such as bricks, auto body parts and bio-fuels. All of which Reddy says would be highly sustainable and affordable. He claims cars made of hemp "can provide bullet-proof security" and that using hemp based fuels would "reduce pollution by 30 per cent."

If any of Reddy's proposed projects get cleared, it would put India miles ahead of the US in leveraging the benefits of industrial hemp.