The current price inflation in milk is mainly due to a shortage of fat. It has led dairies to hike full-cream milk prices or to cut fat content through rebranding of existing products. Also, milk does not attract GST, while fat and powder used in reconstitution does, an anomalous situation for which the consumer ultimately pays.

India is ranked 1st in milk production contributing 23 per cent of global milk production  and there are 50 well-defined breeds of cattle and 17 breeds of buffaloes. As per National Action Plan for Dairy Development envisages to achieve milk production target of 300 Million MT by 2023-24 from 155.5 Million MT during 2015-16 requiring an annual growth rate of 8.56% which would lead to increase in per capita availability of milk from current level of 337 grams per day to 592 grams per day in 2023-24 addressing the substantial nutritional requirement of growing population. To achieve the desired milk production targets, average In-milk animal productivity would be required to grow annually at the rate of 4.7%

India’s agricultural production statistics sometimes present dissonances with consumption data. The household consumer expenditure data are more than a decade old, and an update is urgently needed.

A confluence of political will, professional expertise, technological deployment and an eye for marketing, lifts India from a land of milk deficit to world’s largest milk producer

No other country can boast such a diversity of milk sources, and the opportunities they represent, than India. As the West wakes up to their benefits, we need to tap into different animal sources that we have and our rich custom of plant-based milks

New-age dairy firms are promising the discerning Indian consumer not just high-quality milk, but also an array of value-added products. But can they outsmart India’s famed milk cooperatives?

India has a leading sector globally, which employs over 70% women of the country. This sector is our Dairy Industry. This is a revolution that has occurred in rural India. There is no other bigger example of women empowerment than our Indian Dairy Sector.

Remembering Dr Verghese Kurien, the ‘Milkman of India’ who would have turned hundred today. How he built what is now a $5.3 billion-turnover dairy enterprise owned by 3.6 million farmers.

Exercise choice, but shun activism- it hurts the farmer, it hurts the poor, it hurts nutritional security, and it hurts common sense. Let your choice be an INFORMED one, based on facts and science not merely on belief and sentiments. And please do allow the others too to exercise this right of choice, especially the overwhelming numbers who like, and are conditioned to begin, and maybe even end, their day with a glass of milk; curd, paneer, ice cream et.al. served their way during the day. And please do understand, against the backdrop of widely prevailing hunger and malnutrition, very few are able to even exercise a choice of food, leave aside the dream of emulating food elitism such as veganism. You believe in it, go ahead but don’t impose it. Now let us get some facts straight.

We have 33 supermarkets at the moment. The target is 1,500 in five years.” S.B. Jayaraj, who is gung-ho about his organisation’s plans for Kerala, is not just another retailer. He is the general secretary of the Kerala chapter of Sahakar Bharati — a pan-India body that aims at strengthening the cooperative movement in India, and an affiliate of the RSS, the ideological parent of the ruling BJP. Jayaraj has just got Ernakulam-based Bharath Agro Processing and Marketing Cooperative (BAMCO) registered as a multi-state cooperative society. The first supermarket under the new entity has been opened recently. With over two dozen Grameen Samrudhi stores mentored by Sahakar Bharati since 2017 also being brought under the BAMCO umbrella, the society is all set to have its presence felt in the state.