Milk wars boil over Amul’s plans for Karnataka, Tamil Nadu

The recent battles between the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the Amul brand, and Nandini in Karnataka and Aavin in Tamil Nadu may have some roots in a 10-year-old headline-grabbing tussle between Verghese Kurien, the driving force behind India’s White Revolution and GCMMF chairman, and Amrita Patel, chairman of the National Dairy…

What’s The Territorial Battle Between The Milk Cooperatives?

row between several dairy brands like Amul, Nandini, Aavin and Milma has been in the spotlight for the last few months. Dairy cooperative brands like these have been at the centre of India’s dairy sector growth for the last several decades. The story of dairy sector in India has been one of success. From a milk deficit…

Cooperative or Combative? The Saga of Milk Wars

During the recent Karnataka elections, one divisive issue was about the milk brand Amul from Gujarat versus local brand Nandini. How did this become an electoral issue? That is because Amul was seen to be muscling into Nandini’s territory. The entrant was identified with the incumbent ruling party and local Nandini’s cause was championed by the opposition….

Does India have room for a dairy behemoth ?

On an October morning in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri, then Prime Minister of India, was engrossed in a conversation. He was looking to clear his doubts after spending the night at a farmer’s house in Anand, Gujarat. Shastri, after he was informed about the stellar performance of a local dairy cooperative, was keen to understand…

Cross-border sale: NDDB calls milk coop feds’ meet to sort issue

Earlier, KCMMF, known by the brand Milma, had voiced serious concern over Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) foraying into parts of Kerala to sell its Nandini brand of liquid milk The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) will be holding a meeting of the chairman and managing directors of co-operative dairy federations of the country this month…

Amul, Nandini, Aavin… and politicisation of milk cooperatives

In a country where cows are worshipped, the White Revolution is a forgotten spectacle. When Gujarat-born Amul, perceived to have been mollycoddled by the grand old party aeons ago but now backed by double-engine governments, makes a beeline for Karnataka, political parties are caught in the crossfire of canards. It is a perfect turf for…

Beyond Nandini-Amul debate, dairying is an uphill task for many

If Nanje Gowda, a farmer at Kirugavulu in Mandya district, has sold off all three cows and stopped dairy farming in the last two years, his friends Nanjunde Gowda and Nage Gowda have reduced the number of cows as the rising cost of feed and fodder, coupled with an unattractive remuneration, has hit the dairy…

5 dairy brands that made India one of the top milk producer globally

India was the highest milk producer in the world in the year 2021-2022, contributing to 24% of the world’s milk production, according to the data from Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT). During the same period, Rajasthan emerged as the highest milk-producing state in the country, contributing to 15.05% of the total milk…

Buying Amul not against Karnataka’: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke out on the recent controversy surrounding the entry of Amul into Karnataka, stating that the accusations of bringing in Amul to kill Nandini were “brazen.” Speaking at the Thinkers Forum in Karnataka, Sitharaman alleged that the issue had been tweaked and twisted for political gain during the upcoming Assembly…

Amul over Nandini? No whey

No creature—celestial or mortal—has been coveted, abducted or stolen as much and as many times as the sacred cow Nandini. She appears as the same as Kamadhenu in most stories, but as her daughter in a few. The list of her abductors is long—Vishwamitra, Satyavrata, the Ashtavasus, to name a few. Now Siddaramaiah has added…