Dr Kurien Award conferred on Shri Meenesh Shah, Chairman, NDDB

Gandhinagar: Shri Amit Shah, Hon’ble Union Minister of Home Affairs & Cooperation conferred the 14th Dr Kurien Award 2023 on Shri Meenesh Shah, Chairman, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) at the 49th Dairy Industry Conference in Gandhinagar on 18th March 2023 in presence of Shri Bhupendrabhai Patel, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Jagdish Vishwakarma, Hon’ble Minister of State for Cooperation, Govt. of Gujarat, Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Govt of India, Shri Shamalbhai Patel, Chairman, GCMMF Ltd, Dr RS Sodhi, President, Indian Dairy Association, Mr Piercristiano Brazzale, President, International Dairy Federation (IDF) and Ms Caroline Emond, Director General, IDF.

Named after the Father of White Revolution – Dr Verghese Kurien, the award instituted by the Indian Dairy Association bestowed on Shri Meenesh Shah speaks volumes of his outstanding contribution to the development and growth of Indian dairy industry. This prestigious award consists of a memento, a citation and a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh.

On receiving this prestigious award for years of illustrious services in the sector, Shri Meenesh Shah said that I am truly honoured to have received Dr Kurien Award of IDA with whom I worked for a number of years. Getting an award instituted in the name of my mentor is a very special feeling and it gives me deep satisfaction that I have been able to carry forward the vision of Dr Kurien in the present context. Further receiving it from Amit Shah Ji is very motivating as under his guidance several new initiatives are being undertaken to bring about a new revolution in the dairy sector through cooperatives. I would also like to thank millions of dairy farmers, my colleagues at NDDB, its subsidiaries and all professionals in cooperatives for their continuous support. And last but not the least my family members who have to continue to bear with my odd hours of working.

Shri Meenesh Shah, Chairman & Managing Director of NDDB has an illustrious and multifaceted career of more than 37 years in NDDB. He has been a great proponent of innovations and has been instrumental in conceptualising, planning and implementation of several interventions in dairy and allied sectors for bringing about efficiencies, effectiveness, sustainability and more importantly enhancing the income of small and marginal dairy farmers.

Shri Shah is also Chairman of Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt Ltd, Indian Immunologicals Ltd, IDMC Ltd, NDDB Dairy Services and NDDB Mrida Ltd, which are furthering the objectives of NDDB and catering to various value chains of our dairy sector from animal & human health, dairy machineries, institution building, marketing of milk & milk products to manure management. He also chairs Pristine Biologicals, New Zealand, Anandalaya, Animal Breeding Research Organisation and NDDB Foundation for Nutrition.  He is also on the Governing Boards of many premier institutions of the county like IRMA, NCDFI, Vidya Dairy, FES, North East Dairy and Foods, Bharatiya Beej Sahakari Samiti Ltd, National Cooperative Organics Ltd etc.

He is the Member Secretary of Indian National Committee of International Dairy Federation (INC-IDF) and also a Member of the Standing Committee on Dairy Policies and Economics of IDF. He spearheaded successful organisation of the World’s largest Dairy Conference IDF-WDS 2022 in India in September 2022. He also ensured successful implementation of the World Bank funded Central Sector Scheme ‘National Dairy Plan Phase I’.  During the early part of his career as scientist, he contributed in development of several new and innovative products. He was then deputed to Kiriya Milk Industries, a joint venture company between NDDB and Government of Sri Lanka and the first overseas project of NDDB to promote dairy development in Sri Lanka.

Shri Shah is a Dairy Technologist from Sheth MC College of Dairy Science and a post graduate in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand.