Showing posts with label Amul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amul. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Jiggling and joggling

Jiggling and joggling to wake up the souls...

Though a source of entertainment for many, this cruel sport is just one of the several ways of misusing animals since it gets the cash registers ringing. These mute beings used in movies and other T.V. programmes are treated as mere props and on many occasions, brutally tortured to get one shot right. “Animals are not natural performers. They don’t like performing. While it is practically impossible to completely refrain their use in media, it is important that they are not put through any sort of torture. So, capturing the natural behaviour of the animal is allowed but making them perform special acts that are not natural to their disposition is cruelty and is not allowed,” informs Jaya Simha, Campaign Manager, PETA India. This Mumbai-based organisation is all set to awaken the entertainment industry to animal rights. The most recent case pending in the court is for the rights of the pug used in the Hutch campaign. The little dog was unduly tortured when made to run during the ‘bus-chasing’ scene. “The chimps used in the Amul advertisement were pushed beyond their natural level of performance and that’s objectionable to us,” asserts Jaya.

It’s great to have such organisations work for the rights of animals, but it’s quite disappointing that only a handful of us worry about the life of those who cannot speak for themselves. The laws and campaigns might someday spare the animals used as props from torture, but I wonder if it can bring about mercy in those hearts that swell with life by watching those of others sink in pain and fear?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.


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Saturday, August 4, 2012

The journey to the next thousand miles begins…

…with a course correction! NDDB has taken India’s milk production a long way forward with its cooperative model. Now it has become imperative to turn that model on its head, by Virat Bahri
“There’s nothing really special about either the bulls or the farmers. Then how is it that the farmers of the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union in Anand, Gujarat are doing so well?”

The year was 1964. And these were the exact queries that went through the mind of the then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri, also hailed as one of India’s most diligent & enterprising prime ministers. He had been invited by the aforementioned union (which we know today by the brand name Amul) to set up a cattle feed plant. As he got a better understanding of the cooperative model being followed, and being the visionary that he was, Shastri realised its potential. He therefore asked the GM of the cooperative, Dr. Verghese Kurien to set up a board (of which Dr. Kurien would be Chairman), under the government, whose mandate would be to set up ‘Anands’ all across India. And that is why, when we talk about NDDB, it would be unfair to talk just about one Anand; the township that NDDB helped create actually spans a much larger area across India.

It was truly a daunting task, and required a lifetime of commitment, with success being anything but certain. But these weren’t Dr. Kurien’s concerns. He had only two conditions – one that the board will be set up in Anand and the second that he would not take a single rupee from the government; and that his salary would come from the farmers. It was his way of ensuring that he remained committed to the farmer’s needs. That was how National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was born.

We often hear about deals that make money. Then there are the deals that lose money. But this was one rare instance of a deal that made history – a revolution that India proudly remembers as Operation Flood.

What was the model about? In Kurien’s words, “Combine the power of farmers, production, processing and marketing and put it in the hands of the farmers. They employ professionals to manage the business – professionals who are responsive to their needs.”
 
We witnessed a snapshot of this model ourselves at the Sandesar Cooperative, which is a half an hour drive from the NDDB headquarters at Anand. Rows of farmers wait outside, with cans of milk and deposit it at the counter, where they are paid their fair price for the milk, which is also tested for fat content, et al. All the milk taken is deposited in a large cooling container till it goes for processing in a dairy, and then further to the retail outlets. This model, replicated by many times, has single-handedly enabled self sufficiency for India in terms of milk production.

Dr. Amrita Patel, Chairman, NDDB, reminisces, “The growth of Amul was based on a principle which is not often understood about agriculture, the fact that it is market driven.” Anand would not have prospered without the market of Bombay. There was a private dairy there that was exploiting the farmers, so they decided to form their own cooperative to supply milk to Bombay. Slowly they grew and made the entire set up more professional and lucrative. For instance, they realised that the milk production exceeded demand in winters and fell short in summers. So they decided to set up a milk powder plant (they successfully converted buffalo milk into powder, considered scientifically impossible at that time).

The twists and turns in NDDB’s tale didn’t end there. Dr. Kurien subsequently went to Delhi to ask for a Rs. 30,000 loan that was not granted. He came back and asked the Kaira farmers to contribute Rs.7,00,000 to the task of setting up the office (the one where we interacted with Dr. Patel). The first funding came in the form of a consulting fee to set up a dairy in the neighbouring district and slowly, the business grew. The board has since engaged in all aspects of the dairy business.

But the real cash crunch was with respect to setting up cooperatives across India. State governments were reluctant to fund the projects, as governments were still very uncomfortable with the idea of transferring control to the farmers, since it meant losing control themselves. So NDDB was stuck midway on its mandate in the late sixties.

 




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