Today we visited Mother Dairy, I took some notes about their presentation. The following are some of the key points mentioned during the presentation. Mother Dairy produces milk and milk products as well as edible art. It takes milk from cows and buffaloes. They only process milk and they don’t have a dairy farm. Mother Dairy buys milk from poor farmers, small farmers.
Over 60% of people that they interact with are females – they have an initiative to empower females. This was an interesting concept that I really liked. I appreciated that they focused on empowering women and thus empowering villages. Mother Dairy was established in 1974 to get milk to cities, more specifically Delhi, during the White Revolution. Today in India, 3.3 million liters of milk are sold a day.
Mother Dairy told us about their process and it was fascinating. Milk when collected is chilled to 4 degrees and then transported to cities so it doesn’t spoil during transportation. The milk is collected from the villages and then chilled before the processing starts. The milk is chilled because you can only preserve milk by chilling it. Milk is sold in loose format and the format is environmentally friendly. Mother Dairy sells 1 million of homogenized milk. Pasteurized milk has a different process and is at a temperature of 72 degrees before its chilled to be preserved.
We learned that India is the world’s largest milk producing country. I found this fact to be particularly interesting because when I think of India, I don’t think of milk. Mother Dairy has a 20% margin for liquid milk. I wouldn’t think milk would be a successful field in India due to the challenges with refrigeration. However, Mother Dairy has less spoilage because of its transportation system. The cows in the city aren’t a part of the system. Mother Dairy wants pure, fresh milk and the cows in the city aren’t good quality. I was intrigued to find out that in India the milk is a mix of cow and buffalo milk – it’s important to note that goat milk isn’t used.
One thing that struck me about Mother Dairy was the fact that, during processing, milk is not touched at all. Everything about the processing of the milk is done by machines and computers. From my western bias, I hadn’t expected something as technologically sophisticated from a milk factory in India. I am having to adjust my ideas and perspective of India as it’s a very innovative country that has to adapt to extreme situations and circumstances.
I also made some road observations from the bus today. In the middle class Delhi area, there are a lot more piles and mountains of trash and waste. There were more slums visible from the road and the area seems to be less developed. However, I was surprised by the amount of greenery that I was seeing – but this was a direct result of the new government’s plan to make Delhi greener. I observed more and more people relieving themselves on the side of the road and the sidewalks were more broken and cluttered here. I’m starting to see the emergence of the different types of India that we discussed in the prep classes.
When we returned to FIIB we had two guest lectures, one about real estate in India and the other about the Black Market and black money. It was extremely interesting to hear these two men speak, both of whom were very successful in their own fields. From the real estate lecture I learned that most of the contractor’s projects list about 3 years and that most of the construction and project development occurs in the cities. It only happens in the big cities because that’s where the politicians, bureaucrats, and wealthy people live. The bias towards those with money and power isn’t a foreign concept to me, that happens in the US as well it’s just on not as drastic a scale as it is here. I also learned a lot about corruption in India. There is a big difference in land prices based on what the British left India when they gained independence. The difference between the price and the price that’s paid in cash is considered black money. There is a lot of risk and benefit in the real estate industry with too much profit. The lecturer explained the psychology behind the corruption and greed. He told us that most Indians have a feeling of insecurity so they keep buying more and more property. This greed led to corruption and eventually to the Prime Minister’s push for demonetization to reign in black money.
We went to Bukhara for dinner tonight and it was absolutely fantastic. It’s the 3rd best restaurant in Asia and I can definitely see why. We were sat with our guests that lectured us back at FIIB. I was at a table with Vidya from FIIB and it was very nice to get the opportunity to talk with her and discuss how we were liking India so far and what our impressions were. She asked us for our thoughts about Trump and I wasn’t really surprised because it is a very big topic not only in the US but Trump and his policies affect other countries as well. We had discussed this in prep class so I was prepared for her question.
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