The New White Revolution in India

Launched on 13 January in 1970, with a motive to make India the largest producer of milk in the world, The White Revolution or also known as Operation Flood was an innovative program to transform India's destiny. As the name suggests, the 'White Revolution' refers to bringing a flood of milk in the country which means to increase the milk production in India to such an extent that it becomes the largest producer of milk in the world. By this initiative, India which was earlier a milk deficient country became the biggest producer even ahead of the United States in milk production.

The discussion about White Revolution is undoubtedly incomplete without its architect who is none other than Dr. Varghese Kurien and he had the next level of scientific temperament. He was also a socialist and helped farmers against troubles. But when he introduced his Billion-litre Idea, which is the other name of the above discussed 'Operation Flood', it completely changed India's destiny and prevented the farmers from exploitation. It was The World's Largest Agricultural Dairy Development Programme. This made dairy farming India's largest self-sustaining industry and rural employment provider. A prominent contribution to the success of this program was the support National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) got from Anand Milk Union Limited (AMUL). Dr. Verghese Kurien who was the Founder of Amul was also the Chairman of NDDB. His support to NDDB made him the architect of this program. Each of the objectives of this project was fulfilled as there was a lot of transparency in this project and the Cooperative body prevented the control of power in a few hands. This three-phased program spread over 30 years targetting one decade in one phase.

Nowadays, as a sequel of the 'White Revolution,' there is now a need for a New White Revolution in India. After 'Operation Flood' the milk production has even exceeded the demand of the population. The 'New White Revolution' mainly focused on ways of improving farmers' income and living conditions. It manages crop and pasture land patterns and their usage without the use of synthetic fertilizers. Also, this new white revolution focuses on feeding organic fodder or stock to the cattle. Also during this project, exotic cattle breeds were used to increase the production which neglected the Indian breeds. Hence, another reason for the New White Revolution is the development of recognized 'Indian Breeds'. Another demand for this 'New White Revolution' is to stop all kinds of adulteration that are being done and give pure milk without any mixings. A statistic proved that around 68% of Indian milk has adulterants in it which may even sometimes make it unfit for consumption. At last, another major need why New White Revolution is required to be practiced is now the consumers day by day become more health-conscious. Hence, to re-practice the whole policies of the former program this step has been taken. Hence, indeed 'Operation Flood' was a record-breaker program but there is still a need for some improvisations and to achieve better objectives.