Amit Shah performs Bhoomi Pujan for the world's largest curd manufacturing plant under the Amul Bengal Dairy Project

📌 Summary:

• Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah performed the Bhoomi Pujan for the world's largest curd manufacturing plant under the Amul Bengal Dairy Project at the New Town Convention Centre, Kolkata

• The initiative advances the vision of "Sahkar Se Samriddhi" (Prosperity through Cooperation) and the goal of "White Revolution 2.0"

• Plant capacity: will process 10 lakh litres of milk and benefit 1.20 lakh milk-producing livestock rearers

• 30 acres of land was provided to Amul free of cost by the West Bengal government, enabling the project and helping livestock rearers secure the highest possible price for their milk

• Cooperative economics highlighted: for every rupee spent by an Amul consumer, 87 paise goes directly into the accounts of livestock rearers — illustrating the cooperative model's producer-centric value distribution

• Animal breed improvement: the Government of India will establish a breed improvement initiative in Bengal with a Sex-Sorted Semen facility; over the next 15 years the goal is for every livestock-rearing household to have at least two animals of breeds yielding 25 per cent more milk

• Benefits of more than 70 farmer-welfare schemes of the Ministry of Cooperation will reach Bengal's farmers within six months

• Under the "Sarathi" concept, an MoU has been signed to connect Bengal's taxis with Bharat Taxi, enabling every driver to become an owner of both the vehicle and of Bharat Taxi

• Bengal's abundant water and fertile land were cited as the basis for the dairy expansion; the mishti doi made in Bengal will now be distributed nationally

• Present at the event: West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari, Gujarat Assembly Speaker Shankarbhai Chaudhary, WB Cooperation Minister Swapan Dasgupta, and Amul Dairy Chairman Ashok Chaudhary, among others

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 (Indian Economy — animal husbandry, food processing, cooperatives as a growth vehicle, farmer income) and GS2 (Governance — the Ministry of Cooperation and Centre-State coordination in welfare delivery). The cooperative dairy model (Amul/AMUL–NDDB) is a classic Mains case study on inclusive growth and rural value chains.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• Ministry of Cooperation was created in July 2021; its motto is "Sahkar Se Samriddhi"
• White Revolution / Operation Flood — launched 1970 by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) under Dr. Verghese Kurien, making India the world's largest milk producer
• Amul = Anand Milk Union Limited, brand of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), Anand, Gujarat
• Plant will process 10 lakh litres of milk/day and benefit 1.20 lakh livestock rearers; built on 30 acres
• Sex-sorted semen technology enables selective breeding for female calves, raising milk-yielding herd size
• 87 paise of every consumer rupee reaches the producer under the Amul model
• Bharat Taxi — a cooperative-model ride-hailing initiative promoted by the Ministry of Cooperation

🔑 Key Term: Sex-sorted semen — semen processed to separate X-chromosome-bearing (female-producing) sperm from Y-chromosome-bearing sperm, allowing dairy farmers to produce predominantly female calves and thereby expand the milking herd faster.