Meenesh Shah of NDDB is no ordinary Chairman. Having the privilege of working under legendary Varghese Kurien, Shah has risen through the ranks, serving at many junior positions and gathering vast experiences in the process. This went on display when he took over last year as the NDDB Chairman. Shah has launched several new initiatives.
Simple and suave, even his detractors say Meenesh Shah’s knowledge of the dairy field cannot be challenged. Shorn of pompous ways, as are generally seen with MDs and Chairmen, Shah is able to communicate his ideas across rungs of the ladder in his organization by the force of his sheer sincerity.
In an exclusive interview with the Indian Cooperative, Shah looked back at his long career at NDDB and narrated a few successful experiments which have given him utmost professional satisfaction, one of which was introducing high-quality ice cream which even poor strata of society can afford to buy.
“You are from my generation and you must be knowing how ice cream used to be a luxury item in our childhood days. Because of a variety of reasons large dairy plants did not find it cost-effective to venture into this segment. I got a chance when I was posted in Sugam dairy, a subsidiary of NDDB. After many brainstorming sessions, our team could produce quality ice cream at a rate of Rs 2! In the market, it was then priced at Rs 10 by the private players. This proved a gamechanger as others were forced to reduce their price”, recounted Shah.
Another achievement that has given immense satisfaction to Shah was the introduction of frozen Paneer by his team. “Paneer had a limited shelf life and the day we could produce frozen Paneer we knew it was going to be a gamechanger, ” said Shah. With matter (peas) also being frozen by us, the ubiquitous Mutter Paneer in Indian households is the result of our initiative. Now it can be cooked at short notice”, said Shah.
Shah also recounted the story of India-Sri Lanka MoU on dairy in the late nineties between Heads of States and how as a part of the team, he worked hard to launch dairy production in Sri Lanka from 1996-2000. Private players of Sri Lanka had convinced Sri Lankans that fresh milk is bad for health while milk powder is good. Besides ramping the milk production, we also fought the erroneous mindset, underlined Shah. Later, NDDB withdrew from the venture but not before igniting a dairy revolution in the country, recounted Shah.
Meenesh Shah also described how after the success of Operation Flood, a new vision in the shape of CMC was conceived. Funded by the World Bank, CMC worked from 2012-19. Shah spearheaded the team which came out with startling ideas of innovations on the issue of animal productivity. Of the total of its global ventures, the World Bank categorized CMC as belonging among the top 2-3% of successful ones, said Shah with a sense of satisfaction.
A free-wheeling interview with Shah lasted for more than 30 minutes where he expounded at length on several issues including Modern Dairy Cooperative Society (DCS), Solar co-ops being mooted by NDDB, and why the Amul model has not succeeded everywhere in equal measure. There are a few more issues on which he talked freely and frankly. Part Two of his interview will be published soon. Stay tuned to www.indiancooperative.com
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