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 ten-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 Development Board (NDDB).
Patel, a Verghese protégé, had wanted to create an umbrella brand under Mother Dairy (an NDDB subsidiary), by setting up joint ventures with state federations to create a centralised brand. Mother Dairy would hold a 51 per cent stake in each joint venture. Kurien resisted fiercely on grounds that it would corporatise the dairy sector. After several rounds of truce talks, in which even the then deputy Prime Minister L K Advani had to intervene, Patel’s plan was shelved.
That episode may well have created an aversion to centralis
TO READ THE FULL STORY, SUBSCRIBE NOW NOW AT JUST RS 249 A MONTH.
Subscribe To Insights
Key stories on business-standard.com are available to premium subscribers only.Already a BS Premium subscriber? Log in NOW
Or