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The Print
5 days ago
- Business
- The Print
India can't fix food security with more grain alone. FCI at 60 needs a nutrition agenda
With the recent equity infusion of Rs 10,157 crore, FCI is expected to play the salient role in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) — certainly until December 2028, and most likely beyond. Both its core objectives — effective price support for farmers and provisioning food grains for Public Distribution System (PDS) and Other Welfare Schemes (OWS) — are now firmly entrenched in the political economy of the country. Cut to today, India's annual food grain production stands at 332 MT, and as per Niti Aayog estimates, the last decade saw the most visible reduction in poverty — from 29.17 per cent to 11.28 per cent. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has moved to a swank corporate office in New Delhi, and its network has expanded to include 25 regional offices and 170 district offices. After the enactment of the Food Corporations Act, 1964, C Subramaniam, the food and agriculture minister in Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet, invited noted academician TA Pai to helm the new organisation with an authorised capital of Rs 100 crore and an equity of Rs 4 crore. The headquarters was established in Madras — as Chennai was then called — and the first district office was in Thanjavur. India's annual harvest was at its nadir — at 62 MT. Poverty had touched 44 per cent, according to VM Dandekar and N Rath, and 54 per cent, according to Pranab Bardhan. Milestones and challenges Six decades ago, when it was established, the FCI was at the forefront of India's quest for food self-sufficiency. It received accolades for its intervention in ramping up the procurement of paddy and wheat during the Green Revolution to support an expanded PDS. By the mid-1970s, supply began to outstrip demand. The warehousing and logistics infrastructure could not keep pace with rising production, and rats had a field day at railway stations where grain was stored in the open. Unlike the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), which kept pace with technology and insulated its operations from power brokers, the FCI failed on both counts. It was dubbed 'a behemoth that had long outlived its purpose'. Yet reforming it remained a political hot potato, especially during the era of unstable coalitions in the 1990s. The economic liberalisation of 1991 opened up the Indian economy, and many FMCG brands began to see the potential of packaging 'atta' and 'chawal' for the growing middle classes. Four years later, in 1995, WTO protagonists launched a major campaign against the FCI, criticising what they saw as trade-distorting subsidies, even though India's Agreement on Agriculture with the WTO allowed these staples to be placed in the 'Blue Box,' which sanctioned certain forms of government support. Also read: MSP under Shastri began as a crisis response. Now India must ask what role it should play today Decentralised procurement By 1996-97, the procurement monopoly of the 'behemoth' was shared with state governments under the Decentralised Procurement Scheme (DCP). Apart from savings on transit, states also had to take direct responsibility for the quality of procurement and authentication of farmers. Of course, the deficit for either commodity was to be met by the FCI from its central pool (procurement over and above the state's own requirement). Thus for most states in the country, wheat was supplied from Punjab, Haryana and MP. Antyodaya – upliftment of the last (poorest) person During the first NDA regime under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the government identified the poorest 1,00,00,000 families in the Below Poverty Line category and offered to them 35 kg of rice and wheat at a highly subsidised price of Rs 3 per kg of rice and Rs 2 per kg of wheat. It was expanded twice by an additional 50 lakh BPL families in June 2003 and August 2004. The general agreement was that while the Antyodaya families would get concessional food, those at BPL would be given food at 50 per cent of the MSP and the APL at 90 per cent. NFSA 2013 and UN SDGs Two years before the UN introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to which countries including India are signatories, India notified its own National Food Security Act on 10 September 2013. The Act aimed to cover 75 per cent of the rural population and up to 50 per cent of the urban population for receiving subsidised food grains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). Together with MGNREGA, it addressed two top concerns — Zero Hunger and Zero Poverty. However, alongside this political commitment, there was a growing campaign highlighting inefficiencies in the FCI's operations. Soon after assuming office in 2014, the NDA government established a high-level committee under the chairmanship of Shanta Kumar to examine all aspects of the functioning of the FCI and the PDS. The committee recommended that the FCI hand over all procurement operations of wheat, paddy, and rice to states with prior experience, such as Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Punjab. It also suggested that the FCI shift its focus to supporting states and regions where farmers were in distress due to prices being significantly below the MSP — such as eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Assam. The committee also promoted the use of the Negotiable Warehouse Receipt system to enable farmers to receive 80 per cent of the value of their produce at MSP as an advance, and invited private sector participation in warehousing, logistics, and storage — thereby making the system more compatible with a market economy. It called for prioritising millets, pulses, and oilseeds, and for aligning MSP with trade policy to ensure that landed import costs do not fall below MSP. It recommended cash transfers indexed to inflation, and starting in September that year, the central government launched pilot projects for providing food subsidies through cash transfers in the Union Territories of Chandigarh, Puducherry, and urban areas of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The response, however, was mixed. The 15th Finance Commission, in its 2020 report, suggested that food subsidies be partially offset by increasing the Central Issue Price (CIP) of subsidised food grains. It also noted a decline in the share of cereals in food consumption, especially a reduced preference for wheat and rice. But then came Covid-19. FCI stocks became a blessing, enabling the country to extend free food to its most vulnerable sections to mitigate the distress caused by job losses and reverse migration. Free food grains were distributed from April 2020 to December 2022 under the PMGKAY. The scheme was then extended — first for a year, and then for an additional five years from January 2024. Under PMGKAY, the Centre has tasked the FCI and other state agencies with procuring food and organising its distribution to around 820 million people free of cost until December 2028. Initial estimates of around Rs 12 lakh crore over five years may be exceeded due to new census data and higher MSP announcements in the coming years. Also read: The real White Revolution—Shastri's NDDB built a farmers-first economy that still works The call is political According to Ashok Gulati, Distinguished Professor of Agriculture at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), the problem is not so much with the FCI, but with the policy framework. He questions the logic of providing cereals to over 67 per cent of the population at a time when the focus is on the thali index — cereals plus protein. He has suggestions with regard to both procurement and the PDS. On the procurement side, he suggests that procurement be restricted to the requirements of the PDS, and that MSP should be offered only for crops best suited to their respective agroclimatic zones. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on 17 December 2024, the government acknowledged holding 367 LMT, against the required 210.40 LMT. Taking the Sangrur district of Punjab as an example — where the groundwater level had fallen by more than 25 metres during 2000–2019 — Gulati suggested that MSP in this district be restricted to millets and pulses, thereby cutting down on water, power, and fertiliser subsidies of about Rs 10,000 per acre (to be shared equally by the Centre and the state). Likewise, he suggested converting the 5 lakh ration shops into multi-commodity nutrition hubs and giving each family a food subsidy of around Rs 8,000 per year to spend on a more diversified and nutritious food basket. This would also minimise the gap between PDS offtake and the NSSO data on actual food consumption. Meanwhile, the FCI is at the forefront of bringing about structural change in its procurement operations. The AI-based Automatic Grain Analyser (AGA), which minimises human intervention to ensure greater transparency in the grain procurement process, and the Mixed Indicator Method (MIM), used to determine the age of custom-milled raw rice during its acceptance in central pool procurement, are some of the tools introduced by the FCI. Silo storage, container movement, and tamper-proof, high-security cable seals on railway rakes have resulted in a 96 per cent reduction in transit losses. What is the final prognosis, then? The FCI has the technology, human resources, and financial muscle to implement the policy directives of the government. It has shown its resilience during times of crisis and is willing to take on additional responsibility as and when required. And if the mandate is expanded to make it the preferred procurement agency for the revamped PDS — comprising not just cereals but the entire range of agro commodities — the FCI will be able to take up the gauntlet. This is the third article in a series on Lal Bahadur Shastri and the institutions he helped establish. Sanjeev Chopra is a former IAS officer and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Until recently, he was director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He tweets @ChopraSanjeev. Views are personal. Disclosure: The columnist is a trustee of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial (LBS Museum). (Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)
Hindustan Times
7 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Language row attempts to revive a dead horse
It was the 'swinging sixties' in Allahabad (present-day Prayagraj). British rule had ended two decades ago, but in a city teeming with the old gentry, the colonial ways were still visible. The Civil Lines observed the tradition of a lunch break, and in many shops, salesmen wearing ties could be found speaking in English with their esteemed, genteel customers. The city was proud of its university, dubbed the Oxford of the East. The Indian Civil Service had been rechristened as the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Yet the nomenclature change did nothing to dampen its power or its regalia. Admission to Allahabad University was considered the essential first step towards realising the goal of cracking the civil services examination. The city hosted many poets and writers. The city had enough reasons to feel snooty and entitled. In such an atmosphere, the residents woke up to a surprise one day when they saw slogans written in coal tar on the walls of the local church, convent schools, and some other prominent places debunking the English language exhorting, 'Angrezi hatao, Bharat bachao' (remove English and save the country). In the initial days, people failed to fathom the long-term impact of a larger movement. The anti-English campaign was the brainchild of socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, who initiated it in 1957. It took a decade to gather steam, and received the support of the Jana Sangh and other political parties. Sensing an imminent public outcry, then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri made some critical moves in support of Hindi, leading to violent reactions in the Southern states, resulting in 70 cases of self-immolation or death by poisoning. Some died in the police firing on the protestors. In 1967, for the first time, assembly elections led to the formation of non-Congress governments in eight states. The language row played a key role in this outcome. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Language is the repository of our cultural moorings, and we shouldn't blame people if they feel emotionally attached to it, considering language as an integral part of their identity. Language played a pivotal role in the formation of the states of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, both once a part of Punjab province. While creating these two states, Indira Gandhi wouldn't have imagined in her wildest dreams that the decision would in later years provide impetus to the rise of terrorism in Punjab. Earlier, the mobilisation to create Andhra Pradesh, based on Telugu linguistic identity, witnessed extreme violence. Let's return to Allahabad. While studying in the state inter college from class 6 to class 8, Hindi, English, and one regional Indian language were compulsory for all the students. I chose Bangla. I am proud that through Bangla, I was able to connect with a great civilisation, its writers, their intellectual depth, philosophy, history, and the nuances of the Independence Movement. The Bangla language and Bengali people helped shape my personality. This is the reason I was happy when the government of India launched the tri-language formula with some minor tweaks. I firmly believe that every young Indian, along with their mother tongue, should be well-versed in one regional language and in English. There is no better way to bring Indians closer to their Indian roots. As far as English is concerned, let there be no doubt about its relevance and effectiveness in the age of Artificial Intelligence. But politics and politicians are on a different tangent. This is the reason we witnessed the spectacle of Uddhav Thackeray and his estranged cousin, Raj, coming together on a public stage, 19 years after parting ways. They insisted they weren't against Hindi, but Marathi should be given its due and respected in Maharashtra. But is it the case? If there was consistency in their words and deeds, they wouldn't have uploaded viral videos of thugs beating unsuspecting shop owners, insisting that they speak in Marathi. While addressing his workers, Raj Thackrey told them that they can rough up those who fail to speak Marathi, but they shouldn't make and upload videos of this. It's a strange way of showing love for your language. Unfortunately, this malady is spreading quickly in the neighbouring state of Karnataka. The cyber city of Bengaluru witnessed public shaming of Hindi-speaking people when they failed to speak in Kannada. I believe that those who relocate to a new state should make the effort to learn the local language, but perpetrating violence against those who can't speak the language is not only unconstitutional but a dangerous trend for the nation. These incidents have opened a personal wound. In 1980, I went to Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) for the first time. At that time, whenever you asked the locals for an address, they would rebuff you, saying they didn't know Hindi. At such times, I would wonder, I could talk in Bengali, but how will anyone survive in the metropolis if they don't know the local language? During the coverage of the Punjab insurgency, I found that people in rural areas had difficulty understanding Hindi. However, during the last two decades, the winds of encouraging change have been blowing in the southern states. Hindi Heartland isn't far behind. Some months ago, when southern superstar Allu Arjun came to Patna, a huge crowd gathered to welcome him. Can we attribute the miracle to central government services, the old tri-language formula, and the culture of corporatisation? The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has tried to douse the flames of the language row by insisting that every Indian language is a national language. However, the moot point is whether politicians will stop fomenting trouble? It pays to remember the language controversy has lost its sting. It can help a politician hiss, but doesn't offer enough political venom to bite. Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. The views expressed are personal
India.com
07-07-2025
- Business
- India.com
This Indian king had maximum gold at time of independence, gave 425 kg gold to govt for..., his name was..., he ruled...
New Delhi: India got independence on 15 August 1947. At the time of independence, there was a king in the country who had the most gold at that time. It is said that he had so many pearls that if he wanted, he could have covered all the pavements of Piccadilly Circus in London with those pearls. We are talking about the Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, who was called the richest man not only in India but in the world. Today we are going to tell you some facts related to Mir Osman Ali Khan. Trucks full of gold According to a report by Financial Express, Mir Osman Ali Khan had more than 100 million pounds (45359 tons) of gold. Apart from this, there were diamonds, pearls, rubies and other jewels worth around 400 million pounds. Famous historians Dominic Lapierre and Larry Collins write in their book 'Freedom at Midnight' that the Nizam of Hyderabad had so much gold that dozens of trucks filled with gold bricks used to stand in the mud in his garden. Because of the weight of these trucks, their wheels had sunk. Apart from this, the Nizam had so many pearls at that time that if he wanted, he could cover all the pavements of London's famous Piccadilly Circus with them. 425 kg gold was handed over to the government Historians tell that in 1965, when the war between India and Pakistan broke out, the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri started a campaign to raise funds. During this time, the government started the National Defense Gold Scheme. According to the information, the Nizam had invested 4.25 lakh grams (425 kg) of gold in this scheme. This is also mentioned in a speech of Lal Bahadur Shastri. According to a report of The Hindu dated 11 December 1965, when Lal Bahadur Shastri came to Hyderabad, the Nizam welcomed him at the airport. Later on the same day, Lal Bahadur Shastri addressed a rally and congratulated Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan for investing 4.25 lakh grams of gold in the National Defense Gold Scheme. According to the information, the value of that gold at that time was around 50 lakhs. India's first billionaire Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan is also called India's first billionaire. Osman Ali, who took over the Nizam's throne in 1911 at the age of just 25, had a total wealth of two percent of America's GDP at that time.
NDTV
24-06-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
Between Operations Gibraltar And Sindoor, A Missed Industrial Revolution
There are times when a peek back into history offers unique insights into what is happening today. In these politically and ideologically polarised times, keyboard warriors continue to engage in social media warfare even as serious analysts examine the implications of Operation Sindoor. The authors are least interested in that kind of discourse. They would rather examine the real implications of Operation Sindoor by tracing the trajectory taken by India since Pakistan launched Operation Gibraltar to capture Jammu & Kashmir in 1965. Perhaps two of the most spectacular achievements of India in the preceding sixty years are the Green and White Revolutions. All serious analysts or scholars agree that there is no comparison really between India and Pakistan, except the fact that the latter has a habit of invoking nuclear blackmail. But India was significantly weaker and vulnerable in 1965. The fact is: even as the then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, grappled with war against Pakistan, he had to contend with a looming famine and mass starvation simultaneously. Narendra Modi faces no such challenges. The authors think that irrespective of political parties and despite the persistence of bitterness in public discourse, the journey of India between 1965 and 2025 has been remarkable, a testament to the vision of leaders, technocrats and scientists. Two politicians, one technocrat and one scientist, stand out as eternal heroes of India: Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then agriculture minister C Subramaniam, agriculture scientists Dr MS Swaminathan, and technocrat Varghese Kurien. Even as war loomed and then raged with Pakistan in 1965, Shastri took some key decisions that transformed India forever. The first was to give a free hand to his agriculture minister Subramaniam, to experiment aggressively with high-yield seeds, irrigation and the use of fertilisers. The actual implementation was left to a scientist called Norman Borlaug and the Indian genius Swaminathan. Of course, it was the Indian farmer - beginning with Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh - who made the Green Revolution a reality. At the same time, Shastri had a quiet meeting with a 'manager' named Varghese Kurien in an obscure village in Gujarat. Kurien agreed to head the National Dairy Development Board, and the rest is history. Just look at some numbers to see how far India has travelled over the last sixty years. The population then was close to 500 million and is about 1,450 million now. The total foodgrain production back then was 89 million tonnes (it actually declined to about 75 million tonnes the next year, leading to a near famine), and it is 350 million tonnes in 2024-25. Back then, the total wheat output was 12.3 million tonnes. In 2024-25, it is estimated at about 120 million tonnes. The total milk output back then was 17 million tons. In 2024-25, it touched 240 million tonnes. While accurate data for 1964/65 is not available, total horticulture output was estimated at about 30 million tonnes. In 2024-25, it is 365 million tonnes. The total eggs produced in India back then were 55 billion, while in 2024-25, it was 143 billion. There are not many Indians today who can personally recall the humiliation India was subjected to in that era. India was hopelessly dependent on food aid from countries like the United States and Canada, whose leaders often took delight in humiliating India even as they reluctantly sent food grains. And still, about 2 lakh Indians died of starvation between 1965 and 1967. Today, while the population has exploded and touched three times those levels, almost on every possible food and consumption item, our production has gone up by five or ten times, if not more. India is one of the leading exporters of food grains, fruits and vegetables. Imagine the predicament for Narendra Modi if India had to grapple with severe food scarcity and insecurity, as it did in 1965. The per capita availability of food grains and horticulture in India is more than 250 kilograms a year, or more than 20 kilograms every month. On top of that, the government provides five kilograms of free food to 800 million Indians every month. In Pakistan, citizens struggle for food now just as ordinary Indians struggled in the era of Operation Gibraltar. But as the CVoter tracker during the conflict shows, a majority of Indians are very clear that our problem is not Pakistan, but the force behind Pakistan, that is, China. We can leave Pakistan at the moment, as it is hardly a competition on socio-economic scales. It's a failed state, and all we need to do is get a deterrent from any terror attacks coming out of that failed state. In normal times, we would have even wished Pakistan well for its own peaceful existence with a growing economy. But right now, we don't even bother with that. Our main issue in every possible sphere is with China. The security aspect remains where it was after the 1962 humiliation, but it is the economic scale that should bother us more. And that debate starts and ends in the manufacturing sector. While critical analysis of Operation Sindoor continues, one significant conclusion can be safely drawn: a very big role was played by systems and equipment manufactured within India. The BrahMos and Akash missiles and many other varieties of drones that were deployed in the conflict were manufactured almost entirely in India. Yet, the conflict also revealed the one big failure of India as a nation in the sixty years since Operation Gibraltar. It has repeatedly missed the industrial and manufacturing bus while its Asian peers have surged ahead. Despite the historic economic reforms of 1991 that transformed India and enabled it to reduce poverty, India has come a cropper when it comes to manufacturing at a global scale. Thanks to mobile phone handsets, India is considered a success story at least in domestic manufacturing in electronics. Exports in 2024 were estimated to be around $30 billion. Tiny Vietnam, in contrast, recorded electronics exports of $150 billion the same year. This is not to say that the industrial and manufacturing sector in India is primitive. It is huge and throbbing with productivity and global competitiveness in some sectors. After all, 16% of a $4 trillion economy works out to more than $600 billion, almost double the entire GDP of Pakistan. Yet, it remains the biggest failure of economic policymaking. China, too, had a primitive manufacturing base in 1965. But today, manufacturing contributes 30% of the GDP, ensuring China has emerged as the 'factory' of the world. According to the latest trade data available, India has run a trade deficit of almost $100 billion with China, which is half the total trade deficit. The deficit on its own is a serious issue. What is worse is India's dependence on China in critical sectors like electronics, telecom equipment, pharmaceutical intermediates and heavy machinery. Operation Sindoor revealed how China has been using Pakistan as a proxy and client state to contain and disrupt India. Imagine a scenario in which a conflict results in China cutting off supplies of critical equipment. So yes, as one reflects on the journey between Operation Gibraltar and Operation Sindoor, it is worthwhile celebrating success stories like the Green and White Revolutions. But it is also a wake-up call. Unless Indian manufacturing takes giant strides in the coming decade, it will never be a serious global power.
The Print
24-06-2025
- Business
- The Print
The real White Revolution—Shastri's NDDB built a farmers-first economy that still works
Shastri's tenure saw the establishment of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), Food Corporation of India (FCI), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Shastri's home in Delhi at 1, Motilal Nehru Marg, now called the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial, displays his few material possessions, photographs with visiting dignitaries, besides some vignettes from his early years in Mughalsarai, Varanasi, and Allahabad (now Prayagraj). However, little attention has been given to the six institutions established by him—each with a lasting impact on India's political economy. In his brief tenure of eighteen months—from May 1964 to January 1966—Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri laid the foundation for India's Green Revolution and played a crucial role in the White Revolution. He also led India to its first victory against Pakistan in the battlefield—the 1965 war. He gave India the stirring slogan of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan . The spot where his memorial is built is appropriately called Vijay Ghat. As 2025 marks the 60th year of these institutions, it is a good time to introspect if they have lived up to the expectations with which they were founded. Naturally, over the years, the ecosystem and context have witnessed a major change. The question is: are these institutions keeping pace with the times and the expectations which their stakeholders have from them? Let's first start with the most successful and prominent among them—the Anand–based NDDB, which is today the lodestar of India's cooperative movement. Founded in 1965 under the chairmanship of Verghese Kurien, it received statutory status in 1987 under the NDDB Act. It is a good coincidence that the UN has declared 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives. This also gives us an opportunity to critically evaluate the role played by NDDB in mobilising farmers and primary producers into cooperatives, farmer producer organisations, and 'producer companies' under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. The NDDB supports not only milk but also edible oils, millets, organic produce, fruits, and green energy. The most prominent brand associated with the NDDB group is Amul, which has a turnover of Rs 90,000 crore. Its closest competition is Nandini, a brand under the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) cooperative, with an annual turnover of Rs 23,000 crore, followed by Mother Dairy at Rs 15,037 crore. These three top brands are way ahead of their closest corporate competitor, Nestle, whose milk and milk products division has a turnover of around Rs 7,600 crore. As such, price discovery and price realisation in the milk and associated sectors are primarily determined by cooperatives promoted by the NDDB. The genesis While visiting Anand, Gujarat, on 31 October 1964, the birthday of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Lal Bahadur Shastri spent the night at the home of dairy farmer Ramanbhai Punjabbhai Patel. His discussions with the villagers convinced him of the virtues of the cooperative dairy model established by Tribhuvandas K Patel and managed efficiently by Verghese Kurien. The next morning, Shastri said to Kurien, 'I have put the most competent and experienced officers from the IAS in our milk cooperatives. In spite of this, nowhere do we see similar success. In what way are you different?' To this, Kurien replied, 'Sir, in Kheda, I am an employee of the farmers. If I fail, they can fire me. In other cases, farmers are the 'subjects' of the government official controlling their society.' Shastri smiled in agreement. 'Dr Kurien, you have to help me do what you are doing nationwide. I want you to head the National Development Board,' he said. Kurien agreed, but put forward two conditions. 'First, I will not 'join' NDDB, and will continue to remain an employee of the Kheda Milk Co-operative. Secondly, I would not like to move to Delhi, and therefore the NDDB headquarters would have to be in Anand.' Shastri accepted both these demands. Thus, Anand became the epicentre of this cooperative movement. The incredibly long tenure of NDDB's helmsman, Kurien, from 1965 to 1998 helped set in place systems and processes that have stood the test of time. The organisation now had the benefit of learning from its successes and failures in a wide range of geographies and demographics—there were milk unions in the Himalayas and the foothills, in desert regions, in irrigated as well as unirrigated tracts, in women-headed households, and in hamlets where patriarchy was deeply entrenched. Kurien handed the mantle to his erstwhile protégé, Amrita Patel (toward the end they sparred bitterly), who also had a tenure of 16 long years. In 2014, T Nanda Kumar, former food and agriculture secretary, was appointed as NDDB's chairman, but he resigned before completing five years. He was followed by Dilip Rath who had joined as the MD of NDDB after resigning from the IAS. After five years, the interim charge was held by Varsha Joshi, joint secretary in the union fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying ministry, who continues to be on the Board in an ex-officio capacity. Currently, Meenesh C Shah is the chairman and managing director of NDDB. Also read: Nothing like deviation in democracy. Even Lenin & Stalin adapted: Lal Bahadur Shastri The core principles While there have been several changes over the six decades in terms of technology, logistics, and support services, the core principles have been retained. From the very beginning, Kurien had insisted that whatever milk is brought for procurement should be accepted—no minima or maxima were prescribed—and so women-headed households with school-going children and just one cow may give less than a litre of milk, while those who had more cattle could contribute more than ten litres as well. All milk was measured and tested—each lot was tested using a centrifuge machine—and the price was determined on the basis of 'solid' and 'fat' content of the milk, thereby disincentivising any admixture with water. Farmers were provided not just with technical inputs, but were also given training on how to conduct and manage the affairs of their society—from elections and accounts to governance at the primary, district, and apex levels. It comes as no surprise then that compared to cooperatives in any other domain, the salience of the milk producer cooperative societies has reigned supreme. Over the years, NDDB took up other project-based activities in the agribusiness domain—from edible oils to Mother Dairy, fruits and vegetables (SAFAL), immunologicals, and agribusiness management. NDDB has encouraged its affiliated organisations to be flexible in its strategic outreach. Realising that as a brand, Amul must have a pan-India presence, it has also encouraged strategic tie-ups with large aggregators and processors to ensure its brand presence in all metros and Tier-I and Tier-II cities of the country. But this is not all. NDDB keeps expanding its domain to everything connected with the farmers—for while it is one thing to get into an economy of scale, it has moved beyond scale to get into scope. The NDDB's latest initiative is a joint venture named Mrida (meaning earth in Sanskrit) with the Suzuki R&D Center India. Its aim is to expand biogas plants across India. Here is a connection between two apparently unrelated sectors: dairying and automobiles. This will create more value for dairy farmers through the efficient utilisation of dung to produce clean energy and organic fertilisers. This is a circular economy in practice—every element in the chain is an input for another process—and there is no such thing as waste. The NDDB is collaborating with ISRO to track fodder resources, supporting startups in hydroponic fodder production, and ensuring that over fifty million milk producers in agriculture are part of a value chain in which they have a stake in ownership, control, and profits. The NDDB has had its share of failures. The Safal National exchange—an attempt to break the stranglehold of the APMCs—floundered while some subsidiary companies had to close down. It required government fiat to ensure that NDDB came within the ambit of CAG, CVC, and the RTI. The argument that farmers organisations should be subjected only to the control of their members is fine with respect to the cooperatives, but NDDB is also one of the largest cooperative funding institutions in the country. Later this year, in the week leading to the birth anniversary of Lal Bahadur Shastri, NDDB will be among the six institutions whose legacy will be discussed, not just in a self-congratulatory mode, but also about what needs to be done in the coming decades to evolve new strategies even when the core principles of cooperative philosophy remain firmly etched. This is the first article in a series on Lal Bahadur Shastri and the institutions he helped establish. Sanjeev Chopra is a former IAS officer and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Until recently, he was director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He tweets @ChopraSanjeev. Views are personal. Disclosure: The columnist is a trustee of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial (LBS Museum). (Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)
