The most telling testimony to the success of the Anand model of dairy cooperatives is the iconic brand Amul. The brand was actually “launched” even before independence in 1946. But it was after the formation of the NDDB in 1965 and the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation that the brand really took off. In 2022-23, GCMMF Ltd that controls the Amul brand reported a sales turnover of Rs 72,000 crores which works to be about USD 9 billion.
Numerous analysts and commentators have studied the success story of Amul to find out what makes it so enormously successful. The reasons are simple. The cattle and the milk are owned by farmers who sell it to the cooperative without any middlemen being involved. The farmers elect their representatives who run the cooperatives. But the key factor is that the commercial aspects of the dairy business are run independently by professional managers just like they do in any private sector entity.
There is a lot of traditional politics in elections in hundreds of cooperatives that contribute milk for Brand Amul. But mercifully, the “business’ is run by professional managers without interference from politicians or bureaucrats. The success of Amul has triggered similar success stories like Mother Dairy and many other state-level cooperatives.
The phenomenal success of the White Revolution also reveals a well-known secret that is not highlighted as much as it should be. It is about scientists and technocrats being given free rein without too much interference from Delhi. One classic example is ISRO. Scientists in the organisation have been facilitated by prime ministers since the times of Nehru. But they have mostly worked without having to follow the diktats of some “babu” sitting in Delhi. No wonder, it is hailed as a global success story even before the success of the Chandrayaan and Aditya missions.
Yet another example is the Delhi Metro. Technocrat E Sreedharan was given a free hand by the powers that be. Thanks to the passion and zeal of the team of technocrats and engineers led by him, Delhi Metro is now the largest metro service in India (not counting the old Mumbai local train services) with six million commuters using it every day.
