Pulses are an important group of crops in India. Pulses are the major sources of protein in the diet. For all categories of people pulses form an integral part of the Indian diet, providing much needed protein to the carbohydrate rich diet. India is, in fact, the largest producer of pulses in the world. In India most of the pulses are consumed in dehusked and split form. Thus processing of pulses assumes a lot of importance. Pulses processing industry helps in processing the raw grain legumes/ pulses into edible form. Pulses are mostly consumed whole or split, apart from desi chickpea which
is usually consumed in the form of flour/besan and has growing demand. Pulse milling is the third largest food processing industry after rice and flour milling. An estimated 75% of pulses produced are processed for making dal in mills of different capacities. The dal milling industry in India is one of the major agro processing industries in the country. From an annual production of 14.5 million tonnes of pulse in the country, 75% of these pulses are processed by dal mills