Govt to set up panel to hunt for head of NDDB bl-premium-article-image

Vishwanath Kulkarni Updated - March 12, 2018 at 03:03 PM.

Current head Amrita Patel’s 3rd stint ends in Nov

Amrita Patel

After 15 years, the Government will start looking for a person to head the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Incumbent chairperson Amrita Patel’s term will end in November this year.

Official sources said the 70-year-old Patel, who is currently in her third stint at the helm of the apex dairy policy-making body, has expressed her willingness not to continue for another term.

Patel was first appointed as Chairperson of NDDB in 1998 at the age of 55 by her erstwhile mentor and predecessor, Verghese Kurien, the “Milk Man of India”.

She was subsequently re-nominated in 2003 and 2008 to the top slot of NDDB.

Officials said the Government was in the process of forming a search committee under Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth to short-list names for the post.

The Department of Personnel and Training is expected to issue an order on the formation of the search committee, official sources said. Other members in the panel include Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Secretary Anup Kumar Thakur and Agriculture Secretary Ashish Bahuguna.

Among the potential contenders for NDDB’s top slot are Vipul Chaudhary, Chairman, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation; Deepak Tikku, Managing Director of NDDB Services; Dilip Rath, Managing Director of NDDB; and B.M. Vyas, former Managing Director, GCMMF.

NDDB was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1965, mainly to replicate the success of the Kaira Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union (Amul) in other parts of the country.

National dairy plan

Currently, NDDB is implementing the Government’s National Dairy Plan in 14 States.

The World Bank-funded dairy plan seeks to augment milk production in the country by improving productivity of milch animals and provide rural milk producers greater access to the organised milk processing sector.

Such a move is expected to help plug the projected shortfall in milk production by 2020.

The demand for milk is projected to rise seven per cent by 2020, while production is growing at four per cent, resulting in an estimated shortfall of three per cent.

Milk demand is set to touch 200 million tonnes by 2020, up from 133 million tonnes in 2012-13.

Published on September 6, 2013 16:49